










































THE OLD NEW YORK 
FRONTIER 






















t 



JOSEPH BRANT-THAYENDANEGEA 

(His age, thirty-four.) 

(From a mezzotint of 1779, now ' n the Lenox Library, after a portrait by 
Romney, painted in London, in 1776. ) 



THE OLD NEW YORK 
FRONTIER 


ITS WARS WITH INDIANS AND TORIES, ITS 
MISSIONARY SCHOOLS, PIONEERS 
AND LAND TITLES 

w 

1614-1800 


BY 

FRANCIS WHITING HALSEY 


WITH 


MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 




THE LIBRARY OF 
CONSRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

APR. 17 1901 

Copyright entry 

CLASSO-^XXc. N®. 

"/& / 

' COPY B. 


Copyright, 1901, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 




TROW DIRECTORY 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 
NEW YORK 















THESE 

ANNALS OF MY BIRTH LAND 
ARE INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF 

VIRGINIA ISABEL FORBES 
MY CONSTANT COMPANION IN THEIR PREPARATION 
THROUGH MANY YEARS: 

WHOSE HAND WROTE AND REWROTE 
MORE THAN HALF THESE PAGES. 


“BUT THY ETERNAL SUMMER SHALL NOT FADE." 





Table of Contents 


INTRODUCTION 

PAGE 

Why this History.3 

PART I 

INDIANS AND FUR TRADERS 

I. The Iroquois and the Susquehanna . . . . II 

II. Indian Villages in the Upper Valley . . . 21 

III. The Coming of White Men (1614—1740) . 32 

PART II 

MISSIONARIES AND THE FRENCH WAR 
1650-1769 

I. Jesuits and Church of England Men ... 43 

II. Missionaries from New England.52 

III. Gideon Hawley’s Coming.56 

IV. War Interrupts Mr. Hawley’s Work ... 63 

V. New Men at Oghwaga.69 

VI. Pontiac’s War and After It.73 

VII. Last of the Indian Missions.80 

vii 










TABLE OF CONTENTS 


PART III 

LAND TITLES AND PIONEERS 

i 679- i 774 

PAGE 

I. William Penn and Sir William Johnson . . 87 

II. The Fort Stanwix Deed, and Patents that 


Followed It.99 

III. The Patent Called Wallace’s.106 

IV. The First Settlers.116 

V. Journal of a Tour in 1769.138 


PART IV 

THE BORDER WARS BEGUN 
1776-1777 


I. Causes that Led to the Wars.147 

II. Why Brant Came to the Susquehanna . . . 157 

III. Brant’s Arrival in Unadilla.168 

IV. General Herkimer’s Conference with Brant . 176 

V. The Battle of Oriskany.185 


PART V 

OVERTHROW OF THE FRONTIER 

1 7 7 7 —1 778 

I. Alarm Among the Settlements.201 

II. Cobleskill, Springfield, and Wyoming . . . 207 

viii 








TABLE OF CONTENTS 


/ 0 


III. German Flatts Destroyed.223 

IV. The Burning of Unadilla and Oghwaga . . 229 

V. The Cherry Valley Massacre.238 

PART VI 

THE SULLIVAN EXPEDITION 

1 779 

I. General Clinton at Otsego Lake . . . .255 

II. Brant’s Return and the Battle of Minisink . . 263 

III. General Clinton’s Descent of the Susquehanna 271 

IV. Iroquois Civilization Overturned.278 

PART VII 

LAST YEARS OF THE WAR 


i7 8o “ I 7 8 3 

I. Schoharie and the Mohawk Laid Waste . . 287 

II. Sir John and Brant Return.295 

III. Colonel Willett Expels the Invaders . . -301 

IV. Final War Scenes.308 

V. The Iroquois After the War.317 


IX 








TABLE OF CONTENTS 


PART VIII 

THE RESTORATION OF THE FRONTIER 
1782-1800 

PAGE 

I. Return of the Former Settlers.331 

II. Men Who Came from New England . . 337 

III. Pioneers by Way of Wattles’s Ferry . . . 347 

IV. William Cooper, of Cooperstown . . . -357 

V. Jacob Morris and Talleyrand’s Visit . . . 365 

VI. Churches—Father Nash and Others Founded 373 

VII. A Great Highway.379 

VIII. Economic Facts in Pioneer Life .... 392 

Bibliography, etc. : 

Material in Print.403 

Manuscripts.410 

A Few of the Many.411 

A Personal Note.413 

Index.415 


x 








Illustrations 


Portrait of Joseph Brant, Thayendanegea, 

Frontispiece 

From a large and rare mezzotint of 1779, in the Lenox Li¬ 
brary, made from a portrait painted in London by Romney, 
in 1776. 

FACING 

PAGE 

An Iroquois Fort,.12 

Believed to have stood on the shore of Onondaga Lake and be¬ 
sieged by Champlain in ibig. From Vol. LIL. of “ The 
Documentary History of the State of New York." The orig¬ 
inal in Champlain’s “ VoyagesParis, 1619. 

Council Rock, Otsego Lake, .... 22 

An ancient Lndian rendezvous. From a recent photograph. 

Portrait of Sir William Johnson, ... 40 

From a copy in the State Library, at Albany, of an original, 
formerly owned by Sir John Johnson, Sir William’s son. 

Looking up the Unadilla at its confluence 
with the Susquehanna,.102 

Being part of the Fort Stanwix Treaty line of 1768. From a 
recent photograph. 


Four Eminent New York Indians, . . .158 

Sa Ga Yean Qua Resh Tow, King of the Mohawks, in 
1710, alias King Brant, Joseph’s grandfather. From a 
rare mezzotint of the period in the Lenox Library. 

Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row. Emperor of the Six Nations, 
in 1710. From a rare mezzotint in the Lenox Library. 

E. Tow O Koam, King of the River Lndians, in 1710. 

From a rare mezzotint in the Lenox Library. 

Joseph Brant, Thayendanegea, his age 63. From a por¬ 
trait painted in Albany by Ezra Ames in 1803. 


XI 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 

PAGE 

Fort Oswego,.186 

The principal rendezvous of Indians, Tories and British 
regulars in the Revolution. From a large print in Vol. I of 
“ The Documentary History of the State of New York." 

The original in Smith's “History of New York." Quarto. 
London, iyby. 


Monument on the Hillside, Overlooking 
the Ravine at Oriskany,.196 

From a recent photograph. 

Monument at Cherry Valley to those who 
Perished in the Massacre, . . . -238 

On the site of the Revolutionary Fort. From a recent photo¬ 
graph. 

General James Clinton,.272 

From a portrait in “ The Journals of the Sullivan Expedi¬ 
tion." 


Colonel Marinus Willett,.302 

From the frontispiece to “ A Narrative of the Military Ac¬ 
tions of Colonel Marinus Willett.” 

The Susquehanna at Unadilla Village, . . 348 

Site of Wattles's Ferry in the middle distance. From a re¬ 
cent photograph. 

Portrait of J. Fenimore Cooper, . . . 358 

From an Engraving by J. B. Forrest of a miniature by 
H. Chilton. 

Otsego Hall, Cooperstown, . . . .362 

The home of J. Fenimore Cooper. Built by Cooper’s father 
in 7797-99. Improved by Cooper in 1824. Destroyed byfire 
in i8gj. The grounds now a village park. From an old 
print. 

The Seal of the Dongan Charter, . 

Stamped on the Cover 

See foot-note, page Q2. 

xii 


Maps 

FACING 

PAGE 

The Frontier of New York, in the Revolu¬ 
tion, .i 

Compiled by the author. 


Early Land Titles on the Frontier with 
dates and owners’ names, . . End of Volume 

Reduced from a map compiled about ijjo by SIMEON 
DeWitt and printed in Volume I of “ The Documentary 
History of the State of New York.” 


Xlll 



















INTRODUCTION 


Why this History 



























Why this History 

R EASONS for writing this history may in 
some numbers be cited. About one hun¬ 
dred and sixty years before the Revolution 
—earlier, in fact, than the landing of the Pilgrims— 
these lands had been visited by white men. Traders 
had travelled along the Indian trails of the Mohawk 
and Susquehanna valleys periodically all through 
that century and a half, while for at least a quarter 
of a century before the Revolution, missionaries had 
engaged in constant labor on the Susquehanna. By 
the missionaries, schools and churches were founded, 
and a beneficent and fruitful work was well under 
way when the war put a sudden end to peaceful 
activities. The lands on the Susquehanna for a con¬ 
siderable time were the frontier of the province of 
New York, the Unadilla River, one of the tributa¬ 
ries of the larger stream, forming another part of that 
boundary line between the Indians and the English, 
which was established by the treaty of Fort Stanwix 
in 1768. Beyond this line no settlements were 
made until after the war, when the white man 
secured his first titles in that fertile region of Cen¬ 
tral and Western New York. 

During the Revolution the upper Susquehanna 
became a base of operations from which the Indians 
and Tories, who had fled from the Mohawk and 
Schoharie valleys, found their way back into the 
settled parts of New York, and under Joseph 
Brant, Colonel John Butler, Walter H. Butler, and 
Sir John Johnson wrought their destruction. After 
peace returned, the history of these Susquehanna 

3 




THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


lands is the history of a chain of prosperous settle¬ 
ments founded mainly by men from New England 
States on sites where Scotch-Irish, German, and 
other pioneers had taken up lands before the con¬ 
flict. Thus it becomes a history, furnishing a type 
of the settlement of Central New York. 

In the history of the upper Susquehanna Valley 
as a highway, three distinct periods might be named. 
First come the trails of the Indian era, dating from 
immemorial times and including the years of the 
fur traders and the Protestant missions. Second 
is the time from 1770 to 1783, when by turns the 
valley was a road for pioneers coming into the 
country, to be driven out by fire and the toma¬ 
hawk; a road for Indians bent on spoliation or 
massacre; a route by land and water for the sol¬ 
diers of General Clinton; and, finally, a route along 
which the Indians, stirred to bitter revenge by Gen¬ 
eral Sullivan’s ravages, penetrated and laid waste all 
that remained of the Mohawk and Schoharie settle¬ 
ments. Third comes the period after the peace, 
when the valley was the road for settlers bound for 
the “ Southern Tier ” and Pennsylvania by way of 
Wattles’s Ferry, from 1784 on for many years, and 
when from about 1800 it became at Unadilla the 
terminus of two great turnpikes, the Catskill and 
the Ithaca, which were the railroads of their time 
and along which for a quarter of a century ran the 
main course of trade and travel for a large inland 
territory. 

This history has long waited for consecutive and 
full narration. More than half a century ago sev¬ 
eral writers dealt with certain interesting parts of 
it. Campbell, with an able and gentle hand, wrote 
the story of the settlement of Cherry Valley, and of 

4 


WHY THIS HISTORY 


stirring events in Tryon County during the Revo¬ 
lution. Stone wrote the biography of Brant as 
might one who loved Brant and honored his 
memory. Simms gathered into his several publi¬ 
cations an extensive and curious array of material. 
Jay Gould, when still under age, revived much that 
Campbell and Simms had brought to light, and 
added other valuable information. Cooper, with 
accuracy and fulness, recorded the annals of the 
settlement developed by his father on Otsego Lake, 
all of which Cooper himself may be said to have 
seen and a large part of which he afterward was. 

Some of these and other chronicles were printed 
sixty or more years ago. They all long since had 
passed out of print and out of the convenient 
reach of purchasers, some of them being now very 
scarce books. At the time of their publication, 
moreover, a large store of important material, 
printed and unprinted, which is now to be found 
in State archives and in libraries, was either inacces¬ 
sible, or for other reasons was not drawn upon.* 

* Noteworthy material of this kind includes The Documentary His¬ 
tory of the State of New York, 4 vols., 8vo; The New York Colon¬ 
ial Documents, 15 vols., quarto; The New York Colonial and Land 
Papers, 63 Ms. vols.', fol.; The Public Papers of Governor George Clin¬ 
ton, edited by Hugh Hastings, State Historian, 4 vols., 8vo, the same 
being the part thus far published of the Clinton Manuscripts in the 
State Library, comprising 48 large folio volumes, these manuscripts hav¬ 
ing been largely used in the preparation of this work through permis¬ 
sion from the State Library; The Journals of the Legislative Coun¬ 
cil and Provincial Congress, 4 vols., quarto; The New York Rev¬ 
olutionary Papers, 2 vols., quarto ; The New York State Archives, 
1 vol., quarto; The Journals of the Sullivan Expedition; The Draper 
Collection of Brant Manuscripts in the library of the Wisconsin His¬ 
torical Society at Madison, 23 vols., large octavo; The Sir William 
Johnson Manuscripts, in the State Library, 25 vols., large folio, and 
all of Parkman’s writings. Most important of all this material, in so 
far as relates to the Border Wars, are the Clinton Papers and Man¬ 
uscripts. The intelligence shown by Mr. Hastings in initiating and 
carrying forward the publication of these papers deserves special recog¬ 
nition. Only in the light of this correspondence can the whole story of 

5 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


This is true in eminent degree of the missionaries, 
of whom very little has been heretofore written, and 
by the above-mentioned writers, nothing. It is 
true in large degree of the Border Wars, the real 
origin and motives of which, especially on the side 
of Brant and his Indian followers, as well as the full 
details affecting this frontier, the author believes he 
has here more clearly set forth. In fact, by com¬ 
bining the new material with the old, it has now 
become possible to prepare a continuous historical 
record of the valley, covering the period from our 
day back to the years when the feet of white men 
first followed the Indian trails of the Susquehanna, 
almost three centuries ago. 

But there are limitations which seem destined al¬ 
ways to exist. Beyond certain dates, those of about 
two hundred years ago, the historical explorer has 
at times little more to guide him than isolated facts, 
and his imagination, as he seeks to find a way about 
in the dim twilight of Indian legend and scattered 
lore. It is not until the close of the seventeenth 
century that he is well assisted by illuminating 
records. 

Previous to the Revolution, the growth and 
spread of settlements in America had been extremely 
slow everywhere. More than a century elapsed 
after Columbus found the New World, before 
Hendrick Hudson discovered the stream that bears 
his name. A still longer period passed away before 
the Pilgrims disembarked from the Mayflower. 
When permanent settlements were first planted in 

this frontier in the Revolution be clearly understood. Stone saw some 
of the papers, but many others seem never to have passed under his 
eyes. A fuller list of authorities, the majority of which were unknown 
to earlier writers, will be found in the bibliography at the end of this 
volume. 


6 


WHY THIS HISTORY 


the Susquehanna Valley, two and a half centuries 
had come and gone since that memorable voyage 
from the Port of Palos. 

Those centuries, so barren of history here, had 
witnessed events of great pith and moment elsewhere. 
England had gone forward from the Wars of the 
Roses almost to the reign of George III. Shake¬ 
speare, Milton, Bacon, Dryden, and Pope are among 
those gifted men of genius by whom her intellect¬ 
ual greatness had been advanced. Her political 
destiny meanwhile had been broadened and deepened 
under Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and Cromwell. In 
France had lived Richelieu and Louis XIV., while 
under Charles V. and Philip II. a vast Spanish 
empire had come into existence and decayed. On 
the banks of the Hellespont, only forty years before 
the voyage of Columbus, expired the last remnant 
of the Empire of Rome, which embraced at one time, 
as Gibbon said, “ the fairest part of the earth and 
the most civilized portion of mankind.” 

On American soil we can point to little of strik¬ 
ing renown during those generations. Near the 
end of them Washington had become a name asso¬ 
ciated honorably with the French War. Jonathan 
Edwards had astonished men in Europe, as well as 
here, with the vigor and subtlety of his mind. Frank¬ 
lin had made contributions to human knowledge of 
great worth and potency. But of other eminent 
names the records are bare. For the most part 
men had been born, had lived, toiled, and died ab¬ 
sorbed in the simple pursuits of trade and domestic 
life. 

In the province of New York the first successful 
men were fur traders who exchanged Dutch goods 
for beaver skins. During more than half a century 

7 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


after Hudson’s arrival these Dutchmen did scarcely 
anything more. Villages grew up on Manhattan 
Island and in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys. 
The trader’s boat penetrated down the head-waters 
of the Susquehanna. But wherever villages were 
founded, they were not so much permanent settle¬ 
ments as trading-posts. Theodore Roosevelt has 
justly observed that while the Dutch aspired to 
secure large wealth for the mother-country, they 
were devoid of ambition to found on these shores 
a free Dutch nation. 

As traders, the Dutch never promised to open a 
way to great national wealth. For the eleven years 
between 1624 and 1635 the beaver skins received 
in Holland numbered only 80,182, and the otter and 
other skins, 9,447, or about 8,000 skins of all kinds 
per year. Albany, the fur depot for the whole 
interior, was described by Father Jogues, in 1644, as 
“ a miserable little fort called Fort Orange, built of 
logs with four or five pieces of Breteuil cannon and as 
many swivels, with some twenty-five or thirty houses 
built of boards with thatched roofs.” Except in 
the chimneys, “ no mason’s work had been used.” 

Scarcely more enterprise marked the first years of 
English rule. As late as 1695 t ^ le tra de amounted 
to only 10,000, while in 1678 Governor Andros re¬ 
ported that a merchant worth $2,500 or $5,000 was 
“ accounted a good, substantial merchant,” and a 
planter “ worth half that in movables ” was a pros¬ 
perous citizen. The value of all estates in the prov¬ 
ince was only $7 50,000. Clearly, that was a time of 
very small things, but they were among the fruitful 
beginnings of a land and people from which was to 
grow the greatest of all the States, and in them this 
frontier had an ample share. 

8 


PART I 


Indians and Fur Traders 
















I 


The Iroquois 
and 

the Susquehanna 

W E cannot understand the Indians of New 
York if we judge them only by what is 
seen to-day of Indian life in the Far West, 
among tribes who roam the mountains and plains, 
and who have emerged so little from the nomad 
state ; or if we judge the Iroquois by their descend¬ 
ants now living on reservations. Not alone has 
their territorial dominion passed away, but their 
genius also—at least, in its manifestations. They 
have remained silent witnesses of the progress of 
civilized life on American soil — stolid, unimpas¬ 
sioned, proud. Before the white man came was 
their time of splendor; after that began their de¬ 
cadence. 

The Iroquois, in their best days, were the noblest 
and most interesting of all Indians who have lived 
on this continent north of Mexico. They were 
truly the men whom a name they bore described, 
a word signifying men who surpassed all others. 
They alone founded political institutions and gained 
political supremacy. With European civilization 
unknown to them, they had given birth to self- 
government in America. They founded independ¬ 
ence ; effected a union of States; carried their arms 
far beyond their own borders; made their conquests 
permanent; conquered peoples becoming tributary 

11 






THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


States much after the manner of those which Rome 
conquered two thousand years ago, or those which 
England subdues in our day. In diplomacy they 
matched the white man from Europe : they had 
self-control, knowledge of human nature, tact and 
sagacity, and they often became the arbiters in 
disputes between other peoples. Universal testi¬ 
mony has been borne to their oratory, of which the 
merit was its naturalness, and which bears the su¬ 
preme test of translation. Convinced that they were 
born free, they bore themselves always with the 
pride which sprang from that consciousness. Sov¬ 
ereigns they were, and the only accountability they 
acknowledged was an accountability to the Great 
Spirit. 

In war genius they have been equalled by no race 
of red men. The forts which they erected around 
their villages were essentially impregnable. An 
overwhelming force alone could enter them ; artil¬ 
lery alone could destroy them. It was virtually an 
empire that they reared, and this empire of the 
sword, like the Empire of Rome, meant peace with¬ 
in its borders. Before the Europeans came, there 
had, unquestionably, for some generations, been 
peace among them. It was an ideal and an idyllic 
state of aboriginal life, all of which was to be over¬ 
thrown by the white man when he arrived, bearing 
in one hand fire-arms, and in the other fire-water. 

The period for which the province of New York 
had been occupied by the Iroquois,* or Five Na¬ 
tions, at the time of the Dutch discovery, is not 
known. Morgan j - cites circumstances which show 

* The origin of this word has been long discussed. Horatio Hale re¬ 
fers it to a native Huron word, ierokwa, indicating those who smoke. 

t Lewis H. Morgan, author of “The League of the Iroquois,” the 
best of all books relating to the institutions and customs of that people, 

12 





AN IROQUOIS FORT 

(Believed to have stood on the shore of Onondaga Lake. Besieged by Champlain in 1615.) 














THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


quois rose rapidly in power and eventually made 
their influence felt all over the eastern part of the 
continent. They are known to have carried their 
arms westward to the Mississippi and southward to 
the Carolinas. They entered Mexico, and La Salle 
found them in Illinois. Captain John Smith, while 
exploring Chesapeake Bay, encountered there a small 
fleet of their canoes. Other Indians assured him 
that the Mohawks “ made war upon all the world.” 

Everywhere these New York Indians were con¬ 
querors. They gained at last a recognized mastery 
over territory that now forms States and might make 
an empire, their influence reaching its height at the 
beginning of the eighteenth century. Morgan de¬ 
clares that in point of sway they had reared the most 
powerful empire that ever existed in America north 
of the Aztec monarchy. Miss Yawger quotes a re¬ 
mark, that their authority at one time extended over 
a larger domain than was embraced in the Empire of 
Rome, and Ellis H. Roberts has said they “ ran in 
conquest farther than the Greek arms were ever car¬ 
ried, and to distances which Rome surpassed only 
in the days of its culminating glory.” As for the 
ultimate purpose of the League being the abolition 
of war, this undoubtedly was its tendency, once con¬ 
quest had been achieved. As with the Empire of 
Rome, so with the Empire of the Iroquois ; within 
the borders of the empire there was peace. Morgan 
believes the Iroquois might have achieved still 
greater eminence. Parkman says they afford “per¬ 
haps an example of the highest elevation which 
man can reach without emerging from the primitive 
condition of the hunter.” But deadly enemies ar¬ 
rived when the white man came with his ambitions 
and his fire-water. 











IROQUOIS AND SUSQUEHANNA 


It is interesting to reflect that this federation of 
warlike people had for its capital a small village near 
Onondaga * Lake where general congresses were 
held, and the policy of the League agreed upon. To 
Onondaga, highways from the south, east, and west 
conveniently led. These men lived on the highest 
land of the continent east of the Mississippi. They 
were at the head-waters of great rivers, and thus were 
able to reach nations less powerful than themselves, 
whom repeatedly they brought into subjection. 
Past the confluence of the Unadilla and Susque¬ 
hanna rivers, messengers of peace or war, warriors 
going to battle and returning from victories in the 
south, made their way. 

This strategic advantage in very notable manner 
was to serve the Indians in the eighteenth century 
when menaced by a conflict between Europeans— 
the English and the French—for possession of their 
country. No one understood the advantage better 
than the Indians themselves. At Onondaga they 
declared that “ if the French should prevail so far 
as to attempt to drive us out of our country, we 
can with our old men, wives and children, come 
down the streams of the Mohawk River, the Dela¬ 
ware, both branches of the Susquehanna and the 
Potomac, to the English. If the English should 
expell us our country, we have a like conveyance to 
the French by the streams of St. Lawrence and 
Sorrell River, and if both should join, we can retire 
across the Lakes.” 

The Iroquois, though powerful as a confederacy, 
were never a numerous people. Just before the 
Revolution it is unlikely that they numbered more 


* People of the mountain is the translation Dr. Beauchamp gives for 
Onondaga. 


15 




THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


than 15,000 souls, if so many—hardly one-third the 
present population of Otsego County. When their 
influence was greatest, and they had not begun to 
suffer from the white man’s vices, they are believed 
to have numbered perhaps 25,000, though never 
more. As late as 1873, official reports placed the 
total number then living at 13,660. At the close 
of the Revolution their population was considerably 
less than at the beginning; instead of 15,000 it 
probably did not equal the number returned in 
1873. More of the Iroquois may, therefore, be 
living now than were living at the close of the 
Revolution.* 

Those Iroquois lands of which this volume 
mainly treats, had been the property of the Mo¬ 
hawks and Oneidas.J The Unadilla River and 
part of the present town of Unadilla, with perhaps 
all of it, were Oneida territory. Farther east were 
Mohawk lands. The Oneidas are known to have 
sold land as far east as Herkimer and Delhi. Evi¬ 
dence, however, which Morgan regards as safe, 
begins the line of division at a point five miles east 
of Utica and extends it directly south to Penn¬ 
sylvania, making Unadilla border-land between the 
two nations. Lands in several parts of Otsego 
County were sold by the Mohawks, but none lay 
as far west as Unadilla. John M. Brown, who 
went to Schoharie in 1750, says that after 1763 or 

* Schoolcraft, writing in 1846, after taking a census, gave much 
lower estimates than any of these. At the beginning of the Revolution 
their number, he thought, was under 10,000, and in 1846 only 6,942. Of 
the latter total, 4,836 were then living in the United States and 3,843 in 
New York State alone. He thought their worldly condition at that time 
such as would promote a considerable increase within a short period. 

f Mohawk, or the other form of the word, Maqua, has been com¬ 
monly defined as meaning bear. It has also been said to signify a man- 
eater. The word Oneida, means people of the stone. 

l6 


IROQUOIS AND SUSQUEHANNA 


1764, the Mohawks claimed land as far south and 
west as the mouth of Schenevus Creek, and that it 
was only after establishing their claims that they 
made sales to Sir William Johnson. Beyond the 
Unadilla River and extending to the Chenango lay 
Oneida lands, but in this part of the province early 
in the eighteenth century a tract was granted to the 
Tuscaroras,* who had come up from their earlier 
home in the Carolinas, and thus made the six 
nations where before there had been five. 

In the summer of 1608, one year before Hen¬ 
drick Hudson explored another great river, Captain 
John Smith made a tour of Chesapeake Bay as far 
north as the mouth of the Susquehanna. Here he 
met the Indians whose name this river bears. Writ¬ 
ing the word Sasquesahanocks, he called them “ a 
mighty people and mortall enemies with the Was- 
sawoneks.” They were “ great and well-propor¬ 
tioned men,” and “ seemed like giants to the Eng¬ 
lish.” He found them “ of an honest and simple 
disposition, with much adoe restrained from adoring 
us as gods.” George Alsop, who wrote sixty years 
later in a kind of extravagant language peculiar to 
him, described them as “ cast into the mould of a 
most large and warlike deportment, the men being 
for the most part seven foot high in latitude, and in 
magnitude and bulk suitable to so high a pitch; 
their voyce large and hollow, as ascending out of 
a cave, their gait and behaviour straight, stately and 
majestic, treading on the earth with as much pride, 
contempt and disdain to so sordid a centre as can be 
imagined from a creature derived from the same 
mould and earth.” The stream which they inhab¬ 
ited and seldom departed from, except for war, Al- 

* The accepted translation of this word is shirt-wearers, 

17 



THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


sop says was “ called by their own name the Sus- 
quehannock River.” 

These Indians, the most powerful tribe in Mary¬ 
land, were among the fiercest enemies of the Iro¬ 
quois, by whom and by the white men of Virginia 
they were at last subdued. A greater enemy, how¬ 
ever, had been found in the small-pox, which in 
1661 and later years reduced the number of the 
warriors from seven hundred to three hundred, and 
thenceforth for a hundred years they remained “ a 
weak and dwindling people.” The last remnant of 
them perished in 1753 in Lancaster Jail, “ cruelly 
butchered by a mob.” The famous orator Logan 
was their most celebrated chief. 

The name Susquehanna is described by Simms as 
“ an aboriginal word said to signify crooked river.” * 
This interpretation has long survived, and perhaps to 
Cooper more than to anyone else is its survival due. 
Cooper gives that meaning in “ The Pioneers.” 
The word is not found in Iroquois dictionaries. It 
is not even an Iroquois word, although the name 
of an Iroquois stream and of a people who became 
allies of the Iroquois. It is, in fact, an Algon¬ 
quin word, and seems to have come from the Lenni 
Lenapes, or Delawares. Heckewelder, the mission¬ 
ary, says it is properly the word “ Sisquehanne,” 
and he advances the opinion that it came “ from 

* History of Schoharie County. Jephtha Root Simms was a native of 
Connecticut, and in 1829 was employed in New York City in a retail 
store. His health failing, he removed in 1832 to Schoharie County, 
where he went into business. He afterward became a toll-collector on 
the Erie Canal at Fultonville. Later he served as ticket-agent for the 
New York Central Road at Fort Plain, and at Fort Plain in 1883 he died 
at the age of seventy-six. Simms’s History of Schoharie County was 
first published in 1845. Just before his death he brought out an en¬ 
larged edition in two volumes with a new title, The Frontiersmen. 
Mr. Simms all his life was an industrious collector of local material- 
He wrote entertainingly and told a story well. 

18 


IROQUOIS AND SUSQUEHANNA 


siska, meaning mud, and hanne, a stream.” It had 
been overheard, he says, by some of the first set¬ 
tlers in times of high water in such expressions as 
“Jali! Achsisquehanne,” meaning how muddy the 
stream is. Authorities to whom the author appealed 
have cited Heckewelder’s interpretation, and among 
them the late James C. Pilling, who devoted many 
years to a study of the Indian languages. Dr. Beau¬ 
champ, however, gives Quen-isch-achsch-gek-hanne 
as a word from which Heckewelder once thought 
Susquehanna might have been derived by corrup¬ 
tion. This word means “ river with long reaches,” 
which is a fair equivalent for “crooked river.” It is 
certainly a more accurate description than “ muddy 
stream.” 

The Iroquois had another name for the Susque¬ 
hanna, Ga-wa-no-wa-na-neh, which means “ great isl¬ 
and,” and to which Gehunda, the common word for 
river, was added to get Great Island River. At the 
mouth of the stream, lying squarely athwart it, is an 
island perhaps a mile long, that was formerly known 
as Palmer’s Island, but later has been called Wat¬ 
son’s Island. It lies exactly where lived the Sus¬ 
quehanna Indians. The mainland opposite has 
been found to be very rich in weapons, domestic 
utensils, etc., many thousands of specimens hav¬ 
ing been found, and sometimes as many as a hun¬ 
dred in a single place. On this island was made 
the first white settlement in that part of Mary¬ 
land some twenty-five or thirty years after Smith’s 
visit. The Susquehanna is remarkable elsewhere 
for the number and size of its islands, especially 
in Pennsylvania. Where the Juniata flows in, 
exists an island of very unusual size. On the 
Guy Johnson map of the country of the Six Na- 

19 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


tions appears a place in Pennsylvania called Great 
Island.* 

A description of the upper valley was given in 
1683 by Indian chiefs to James Graham and Will¬ 
iam Haig, agents of William Penn, who had arrived 
in Albany. From the Mohawk Valley to “the 
lake whence the Susquehanna river rises ” they said 
the distance was “ one day’s journey,” and from the 
lake “ to the Susquehanna Castles,” meaning the 
Indian towns in the Wyoming Valley, was ten days. 
From Oneida to “the kill which falls into the Sus¬ 
quehanna,” this kill being the Unadilla River, was 
one and a half days’ journey, and from the kill to 
its mouth was one day’s journey. 


* An interesting interpretation of the word Susquehanna has reached 
the author from the Iroquois village of Caughnawaga, above Montreal. 
He wrote to a French gentleman at that place to learn if the Marcoux Dic¬ 
tionary, preserved there in manuscript at the Jesuit Mission, could shed 
any light on the question. The gentleman replied that it gave none what¬ 
ever, but he kindly submitted the matter to a learned abbe from another 
place and forwarded the abbe’s reply, which is as follows, translated 
from the French : 

“We are here inclined to think the word is a corruption of Sequana, 
the Latin word for the Seine. It is the opinion of M. B., who is here 
on vacation, opinion which for him has passed to the state of a certain 
truth since the adhesion of a Paulist father which has just reached us, 
and assures us that the Sequana of the United States has, like that of 
France, at its mouth a harbor called Havre de Grace, and that it was the 
French Huguenots who, settling in that place, brought together the 
name of the city and the name of the river.” 

To establish this theory it would be necessary to show that French 
Huguenots settled at the mouth of the river at a time earlier than the ar¬ 
rival of Smith, and proof of this is wanting. A romantic name Muddy 
Stream certainly is not. River with the Long Reaches is much better. 
Best of all is Great Island River, the name bestowed upon the stream by 
those who owned it. And by that name it would be both fitting and 
agreeable for those who love it to have it known. 


20 


II 


Indian Villages 
in the 

Upper Valley 

T HE Indian population on the upper Sus¬ 
quehanna was centred in small villages. It 
was never large. Parkman, in reference to 
the whole continent, has remarked that the Indians 
everywhere were few and scattered Even in parts 
thought to be well peopled, “ one might sometimes 
journey for days together through the twilight for¬ 
est and meet no human form.” Around the Sus¬ 
quehanna villages small clearings had usually been 
made. Apple-orchards had been planted and there 
were frequent corn-fields; but otherwise the virgin 
territory bore few indications that men were dwell¬ 
ing upon it. 

The foot of Otsego Lake was a favorite resort. 
In that fact Cooper found the origin of the word 
Otsego, the particular place where meetings were 
held being Council Rock. A meaning cited by 
Campbell * is “ clear, deep water,” but other writers, 
like Morgan, pass the word by without defining it. 
Dr. Beauchamp gives the forms Otesaga and Osten- 

* Annals of Tryon County. The author of this work, William W. 
Campbell, was born in Cherry Valley in 1806, and died in 1881. He 
was graduated from Union College, read law with Judge Kent, and 
practised in New York, where, in 1849, he was appointed a Justice of the 
Superior Court. From 1857 until 1865 he was a Judge of the State 
Supreme Court for the Sixth District. He also served a term in Con¬ 
gress. His Annals were published in 1831, and a revised edition 
with a new title, Border Warfare, in 1849. A third edition came out 

21 










INDIAN VILLAGES 


missionaries called it Otsego Lake, which is perhaps 
the earliest use of the name on record. On the 
Augsburg map of the province, dated 1777, oc¬ 
curs the form “ Lake Assega,” which would imply 
that the name had then found official acceptance. 
Excellent hunting and fishing were here to be ob¬ 
tained. The first settlers on the site of Coopers- 
town found arrow-heads and stone hatchets in great 
abundance. The apple-trees were of large size. 
Cooper thought the place had been more or less fre¬ 
quented by Indian traders for a century before the 
regular settlement began. The English early rec¬ 
ognized the Susquehanna as a gate-way to the South. 
In 1721 the King was advised to erect a fort near 
where the river flows out of the lake. 

Remains of ancient villages on the river at points* 
below Cooperstown have often been discovered. 
Small relics in considerable numbers have been pre¬ 
served in private hands. Perhaps the largest col¬ 
lection ever made was the one destroyed in the 
Oneonta Normal School fire in the winter of 1892- 
93. It had been formed by W. E. Yager, and 
numbered somewhere about 1,50° specimens. It 
was the only loss by that fire which State appropria¬ 
tions have not been able to replace. In 1892 on a 
farm near the old Goodyear Mills was found a cup 
of clay that had been used for melting lead. An¬ 
other find in the same place was a pipe-bowl. 

When Gideon Hawley came down the valley 
in 1753, he found at the mouth of Schenevus 
Creek,* or the Charlotte, a village of some size, 
then inhabited and called Towanoendlough, which 

* Generally said to have been named after an Indian who lived on the 
stream, but A. Cusick told Dr. Beauchamp that the word meant first 
hoeing of corn. The form Sheniba occurs on a map dated 1790. 

2 3 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


was the frontier town of the Mohawks. Here, 
some years ago, in a time of flood, many signs of an 
Indian burial-place were washed to the surface. 

Harvey Baker has described a village that existed 
west of the mouth of the Charlotte on the lands 
now owned by the Slades, and including the adja¬ 
cent Beam’s Island, on which is a mound supposed 
to contain the remains of an Indian chief named 
Alagatinga. An apple-orchard flourished here. 

What appears to have been another rather large 
village stood at the mouth of Otego * Creek. It 
had orchards extending along the northern side of 
the river, embracing lands afterward known as the 
Van Woert, Calkins, and Stoughton Alger farms. 
Several miles down the river, just above the mouth 
of Sand Hill Creek, is a whirlpool which the Ind¬ 
ians called Kaghneantasis, meaning where the water 
goes round. 

About one mile below Unadilla Village on the 
north side of the river, long existed a heap of 
stones, called the Indian Monument. Gideon 
Hawley thought the pile was due to an Indian cus¬ 
tom of throwing a stone to the spot when passing, 
as a recognition of the existence of a supreme being. 
William A. Fry, of Sidney, remembered that in 
1830 an Indian arrived at the Hough farm to cast 
a stone upon the pile. The Indian said if the act 
were neglected by his tribe in any one year, the tribe 
would become extinct—a belief pointing to fear of 
God. A heap of stones similar to this was used by 
surveyors for one of the corners of Tryon County 
at a place now embraced in Schoharie. The stones 
were small and flat, and there were many thousands 

* Wauteghe was the eighteenth-century form of this word. Later it 
was called Adiga, and then the form Atege occurs. 

24 


INDIAN VILLAGES 


of them. Two miles farther down the river was 
an old Indian camping-ground. David McMaster, 
who was born there, remembered that in his boy¬ 
hood arrow-heads were very common in a garden 
attached to his father’s house. 

The mouth of the Unadilla River was long a 
favorite resort of hunters. The hill on the Una¬ 
dilla side was frequently burned over in the autumn, 
and hence got the name of Burnt Hill. It has 
since been called Mount Moses, and by that name 
is called in the original survey made in 1791 for 
the river-road running at its base. On the Sidney 
side of the stream, in 1772, existed an ancient 
fort which the Indians declared had been erected 
“ five hundred summers ago.” It contained three 
acres of land enclosed by a mound, and ditch. 

David Cusick, the Tuscarora Indian who wrote 
a history of the Six Nations,* went over the site of 
this fort in 1800, and says it was built by Sau-rau- 
roh-wah, an Indian of great stature, with the strength 
of ten ordinary men. This giant carried on war 
against his enemies along the Susquehanna. He 
would lie in ambush near the path, “ and whenever 
the people are passing he shoots them.” He 
“ used a plump arrow, which was so violent that it 
would break the body in two parts.” 

Sau-rau-roh-wah became so troublesome that 
plans were laid to destroy him. A favorite dish of 
his, including huckleberries, was taken to him by 
three warriors, and while he was eating it one of 
them with a club, which had been concealed under 
a blanket, dealt him a terrific blow on the head. 

* Cusick’s work is not held in esteem by historians, but is interesting 
as showing something of the character of Indian tradition. Parkman 
describes it as containing “a few grains of truth inextricably mingled 
with a tangled mass of absurdities.” 

2 5 



THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Running out of the fort the giant rushed toward 
the river, but “ sank in the mire which was near the 
bank.” The warriors then overtook and killed 
him on the spot. They “ spoiled his house and 
obtained a large quantity of skin, etc., and the fort 
was ruined ever since.” Cusick attempts to fix the 
date of this incident, making it eight hundred or 
a thousand years before Columbus landed, which 
would mean 500 or 700 of our era. The value of 
these dates is of the very slightest. 

Until recent years there existed at Sidney an 
Indian relic known as the Knoll. It was level on 
top, some fifteen feet high, and across the top meas¬ 
ured about ten rods. A portion of it was irrever¬ 
ently carted away by the builders of the Ontario 
and Western Railroad, for use in rearing an embank¬ 
ment. Bones and other remains were found there, 
but they did not stay the hands of the spoilers. 
Directly across the river is another elevation of 
ground in which Indian relics have been unearthed. 

The name Unadilla was originally applied not 
only as now to the Unadilla side of the two rivers, 
but to lands across them included in the towns of 
Sidney and Bainbridge. It was a term for all the 
territory adjacent to the confluence and now inter¬ 
sected by the boundaries of three counties. When 
the need arose for a more definite name for the 
Sidney side, the names Johnston Settlement before 
the Revolution, and Susquehanna Flats after it, 
were brought into use. These terms were employed 
for about thirty years, and were then superseded by 
the name Sidney. 

One of the meanings assigned to Unadilla by 
local tradition is “ Pleasant Valley.” It has also 
been said to stand for some kind of a stream. The 

26 


INDIAN VILLAGES 


meaning given by Morgan, our best authority, is 
“ place of meeting,” which refers to the meeting of 
the two streams. The word has been spelled in 
many ways. As in the Fort Stanwix deed, we find 
Tianaderha, so Gideon Hawley, in i753,wrote Tey- 
onadelhough. Richard Smith cites the form Tuna- 
derrah. Other forms are Cheonadilha and Deuna- 
dilla, while Unendilla and Unideally are common. 
Joseph Brant, in a letter to Persefer Carr, wrote 
“ Tunadilla.” All these forms resulted from the 
white man’s efforts to put into writing the word as 
pronounced by various tribes. The form Unadilla 
comes nearest to the Oneida dialect, which has the 
charm of greater softness than the others. Stone is 
at a loss to understand why the pioneers were not 
content to accept as final the spelling adopted by an 
educated Indian like Brant.* 

Near Afton, on an island, was a village called 
Cunahunta, a word sometimes written Conihunto, 
and Gunnegunter, but most important of all these 
Indian settlements was Oghwaga,*j* where at the 

* The reader will be impressed with the likeness of the form Teyona 
delhough to the name of another Indian village referred to by 
Gideon Hawley as Towanoendalough, which also was a place where 
trails and streams met. A word much like it, Teondaloga, was ap¬ 
plied by the Indians to Fort Hunter, the place where the Schoharie joins 
the Mohawk, the meaning of which was, where two streams come to¬ 
gether. Another form for the Fort Hunter place is Iconderoga, which 
closely resembles Ticonderoga. Other words in Iroquois dialects for 
places at the junction of two streams are Tiorunda, now Fishkill; Ti- 
osarande, now Luzerne, and Tiogen, now Tioga Point. Between Teyon- 
adelhough and Teondaloga there is very close resemblance. Each is the 
English spelling of a Mohawk utterance, and they seem originally to have 
been the same word. The present spelling of Unadilla was adopted 
when the town was formed. In the Poor Master’s book of 1793 V is 
written as we write it now. How long the name had been in use before 
Hawley used it is, of course, matter of conjecture. But it was the name of 
a place before it ever was applied to a stream. In 1683 the Indians 
called the river “ the Kill which falls into the Susquehanna.” The 
stream had obviously at that time received no name. 

t Spelled in almost every conceivable manner. Among the forms are 

27 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


time of the Revolution existed the largest Indian 
town in the valley, with an orchard, a church, a fort, 
and many other signs of civilization. It was long a 
central trading post for the Susquehanna and Dela¬ 
ware rivers, where Indians from the Far West and 
South met traders from Albany and Schenectady, 
who, for furs, gave in exchange guns, powder, 
blankets, and knives. This importance of Ogh- 
waga began very early—before 1650 I think—and 
probably as soon as the Dutch had become well 
established as traders in Albany. The Oghwaga 
Indians were detachments from the Mohawks, 
Oneidas, and other tribes, and in 1757 the place 
had become what Stone calls “ an aboriginal Port 
Royal, where many of the Six Nations who had 
become disgusted with the politics of their several 
cantons were in the habit of settling.” 

As early as 1748 Oghwaga had become amission¬ 
ary station, and in the Revolution was a head-quarters 
for Joseph Brant. Among the apple-trees the first 
settlers ploughed up many Indian bones. The apple- 
trees produced fruit, fair and round, and often a 


Oneaquaga, Oughquagy, Onoaughquagey, Ononghquage, Auquauga, 
Anaquaga, Oughquogey, Anaquegha, Onaquaga, Aughquagee, Ochquaga, 
Aughquagey, Oquaca, Oguaga, Anaquaqua, Oquage, and Okwaha. The 
form Okwaho is used in the Marcoux Dictionary, which gives the mean¬ 
ing wolf. This was a term applied to one of the Mohawk tribes. 
Gideon Hawley wrote Onohoghquage. Dr. O’Callaghan employed the 
form Oghquaga. For the present village in the town of Colesville, the 
spelling is Ouaquaga. At Deposit a hotel uses for its name the form 
Oquaga, which is also employed for a small lake of this name. The 
northerly branch of the Delaware has been called the Coquago branch. 
Wilkinson wrote Oquago, and Washington Anaquaga. Stone adopted 
the form Oghkwaga. Sir William Johnson wrote Oghquago—though 
not always. Brant, after the battle of Minisink, used the form Ogh- 
wage. Brant was a Mohawk Indian who knew how to spell. The 
word is pronounced in three syllables. In order to secure such pronun¬ 
ciation the author has taken the liberty of converting Brant’s final “ e ” 
into an “a,” making it Oghwaga. A. Cusick told Dr. Beauchamp he 
thought the word meant place of hulled-corn soup. 

28 


INDIAN VILLAGES 


pound in weight. Many curious trinkets were un¬ 
earthed, and near the old castle war-implements. 
The Indian path over Oghwaga mountain was 
plainly visible for more than sixty years after the 
Indians ceased to travel it. These Indians formed 
a large tribe. In 1770 they sent one hundred and 
twenty-four representatives to the congress at Ger¬ 
man Flatts. In 1772 some Indians living at Ogh¬ 
waga were known as the Ochtaghquanawecroones. 
The town lay on both sides of the river, just below 
a large bend in the stream. The present village of 
Windsor occupies a part of the site. Just below 
Oghwaga lay another town called Tuscarora. 

The trails which followed the Susquehanna and 
its branches formed the great route to the south and 
west from Central New York. Into the most dis¬ 
tant regions the tribes of the Iroquois from the ear¬ 
liest ages had gone over this highway of their own 
building for purposes of war, plunder, and pleasure. 
Along the banks of this stream trails had been 
deeply worn by red men’s feet. Generations had 
passed over them, and the white man, coming later, 
put them to use before constructing roads of his 
own. In many cases the white man’s roads were 
actually built by widening the trails, as was the case 
with the present road from Sidney to Unadilla on 
the northern side of the river and the main thorough¬ 
fare of Oneonta.* 

An Indian trail, as described by Morgan, was 
from twelve to eighteen inches wide, and was often 
worn to a depth of a foot where the soil yielded 
readily. In time of war, trained runners were em¬ 
ployed to carry messages to distant points. Along 


* Formerly written Onoyarenton, and applied also to the creek of this 
name—its meaning, a stony place. 

29 



THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


these well-worn paths relays of men were known to 
cover the space from Albany to Buffalo in three 
days. One Indian could run one hundred miles in 
a day. This extraordinary skill has been ascribed 
to the absence of horses in America before the com¬ 
ing of Europeans. Indians, from necessity, acquired 
the accomplishment of the horse. They did more. 
They performed feats which only the well-trained 
bicyclist can perform to-day. They made century 
runs. 

The upper Susquehanna and its branches, includ¬ 
ing the Unadilla, penetrated lands in which dwelt or 
hunted Mohawks, Oneidas, and Onondagas, while 
the Chemung penetrated the lands of the Senecas. 
These rivers, uniting at Tioga Point to become one 
river, flowed down from a large territory in which 
dwelt the Iroquois nations. That territory, as Mor¬ 
gan points out, is shaped somewhat like a triangle, 
of which Tioga Point is the apex, while its base is 
the great central trail from the Hudson to Lake 
Erie. Thus in Indian times, as in our own, this lat¬ 
ter locality, the base of the triangle, possessed the 
greatest of all New York highways. Down these 
streams from the Long House of the Iroquois went 
almost every Indian who journeyed to the south, 
with Tioga the great central point of meeting. 

The Susquehanna trails followed both sides of the 
stream ; the one taking the north bank meeting at 
the Unadilla River the Oneida trail coming from 
the north. Proceeding up the Susquehanna, one 
trail went on to Otsego Lake and Cherry Valley, 
while the other followed the Charlotte,* crossing 

* The Indian name of this stream was Adaquetangie. When Sir Will¬ 
iam Johnson got his patent to the valley, he changed the name to Char¬ 
lotte as a compliment to the Queen of George III., Queen Victoria’s 
grandmother. 


3° 



INDIAN VILLAGES 


from the head of the stream to Cobleskill * and the 
Schoharie, *j* whence a trail ran along that stream 
to the Lower Castle of the Mohawks at Fort 
Hunter, and to Albany, with a branch following 
Catskill Creek to the Hudson River. For the 
Mohawk country, the Hudson River Valley and 
for lands east of the Hudson, here lay the most 
direct route west by the Susquehanna and Ohio, 
and south to Chesapeake Bay. On this subject 
of highways a truthful and pathetic speech was 
made in 1847 by Peter Wilson, a Cayuga chief, 
before the New York Historical Society, in these 
words : 

The Empire State, as you love to call it, was once 
laced by our trails from Albany to Buffalo—trails that we 
had trod for centuries—trails worn so deep by the feet of 
the Iroquois that they became your roads of travel, as your 
possessions gradually eat into those of my people. Your 
roads still traverse those same lines of communication which 
bound one part of the Long House to the other. Have we, 
the first holders of this prosperous region, no longer a share 
in your history ? Glad were your fathers to sit down upon 
the threshold of the Long House. Had our forefathers 
spurned you from it when the French were thundering at 
the opposite gate to get a passage through and drive you 
into the sea, whatever has been the fate of other Indians, 
the Iroquois might still have been a nation, and I, instead 
of pleading here, for the privilege of living within your bor¬ 
ders—I might have had a country. 

* Originally Cobus Kill and of German origin. An Indian name for it, 
given by Dr. Beauchamp, is Otsgaragu, meaning Hemp Hill. 

f Many forms occur in earlier writings. Dr. Beauchamp gives the 
meaning, driftwood. 


3 1 


Ill 


The 

Coming of White Men 

1614-1740 

T HE Susquehanna Valley had been visited 
by Europeans several years before the 
Pilgrim Fathers made their landing at 
Plymouth. When Captain Christiaensen, the stur¬ 
dy Dutch navigator, in 1614, selected Albany as the 
site of a trading post and erected near there a fort, 
he acted on knowledge already acquired concerning 
its relation to those routes into the Indian country 
which converged near the confluence of the Mo¬ 
hawk and the Hudson. In that year or the next, 
two men, of whom one was named Kleynties, set 
out from Fort Orange (Albany) to explore the fur 
country, and crossing from the Mohawk to Otsego 
Lake, proceeded down the Susquehanna into Penn¬ 
sylvania. On the information these men secured 
was in part based that interesting piece of Dutch 
cartography called the Figurative Map, which shows 
not only the Connecticut, Hudson, and Mohawk 
rivers, but another stream, the home of “ Sennecas ” 
and “ Minquas ” (Mohawks). 

The course of this stream, as shown on the map, 
does not conform to any stream we know, but there 
was only one river inhabited by Senecas and Mo¬ 
hawks beyond the river Mohawk. This was the 
Susquehanna and its branches. About forty years 
later (in 1659) another map, that of Visscher, pub- 


| 






THE COMING OF WHITE MEN 


lished at Amsterdam, gave a more accurate outline 
of a river which is unquestionably the upper Sus¬ 
quehanna and its branches. At its head, living on 
the shores of a lake, were men called “ Canoo- 
makers.” This lake appears to have been Otsego. 
On the Figurative Map is a marginal note in Dutch 
referring to “what Kleynties and his comrade have 
communicated to me respecting the locality of the 
rivers and the positions of the tribes which they 
found in their expedition from the Maquaas into 
the interior and along the new river down to the 
Ogehage.” * At the latter place lived enemies of 
the Iroquois. The “ new river” was the Delaware. 

Another Dutchman soon explored the country 
farther south, one Hendrickson, Christiaensen’s suc¬ 
cessor in command of the ship, who made discovery 
of “certain lands, a bay and three rivers ” between 
the 38th and 40th degrees of parallel, making report 
as follows to the States General in August, 1616 : 

And did there trade with the inhabitants; said trade 
consisting of sables, furs, robes and other skins. He also 
traded for and bought from the Minquaes f three persons, 
being people belonging to this company, which three per¬ 
sons were employed in the service of the Mohawks and 
Mahicans, giving for them kettles, beads, and merchandise. 

A visit to the head-waters of the Susquehanna 
was made in 1616 by Stephen Bruehle, whose pur¬ 
pose was part of a larger purpose entertained by the 
Dutch at that time to secure Indian warriors to aid 
them in a conflict with the French, who were then 
pressing down from Canada. From these warlike 

* The Figurative Map was found in the archives at The Hague in 1841. 

f A Mohawk village appears on the Figurative Map, near the mouth 
of the Susquehanna. 


33 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


preparations dates the beginning of that alliance 
between the Six Nations and the white men of 
New York around which so much history thence¬ 
forth for a century and a half was to revolve. 
From it dates also the Indians’ familiarity with 
fire-arms. 

During the Dutch domination and the first years 
of English rule, many traders came into the valley. 
As the century was rounding well into its last 
quarter, not only the English at Albany, but an 
Englishman farther south, William Penn, began to 
show new and livelier interest in the territory. By 
that time its value in the fur trade had been amply 
demonstrated. When Dongan came over as Gov¬ 
ernor, new energy at once was infused into the ad¬ 
ministration. In 1683 Commissioners at Albany 
obtained for him an account of the river and its 
relations to the Indian settlements, their information 
coming from Europeans, or “ Christians,” as white 
men were then called, as well as from Indians. 
The Commissioners recommended that regular 
traders be sent out, to form camps or settlements 
along the valley. It was argued that these places 
would be much nearer the Indians than Albany 
was, “ and consequently the Indians more inclinable 
to go there.” The recommendation in part sprang 
from a desire to thwart certain efforts made by 
Penn to increase his trade, and in part from a desire 
to accede to the requests of Indians, but in the 
main Penn’s ambition was the moving cause. 

In a short time adventurous young men set out 
on journeys to the interior. Dongan, in 1686, re¬ 
quested the Indians to see that “ neither French nor 
English go and live at the Susquehanna River, nor 
hunt nor trade amongst the brethren without my 

34 


THE COMING OF WHITE MEN 


pass and seal.” Should any be found without such 
passports, he desired the Indians to “ bring them to 
Albany and deliver them at the Town House, where 
care shall be taken for punishing them.” He would 
not make exception in cases of white men married 
to squaws, “ they being only spies upon the breth¬ 
ren.” The reply was that “ we dare not meddle 
therewith, for a man whose goods are taken from 
him will defend himself, which may create trouble or 
war.” In the following year Dongan desired to se¬ 
cure royal authority for erecting “ a campagne fort ” 
upon the Susquehanna River, “ where his Majesty 
shall think fit Mr. Penn’s bounds shall terminate,” 
and Dongan’s ideas as to this point favored Wyalus- 
ing.* 

Of the men sent out in Dongan’s time we do not 
know the names. We have, however, the names of 
two men who, on June 7, 1701, crossed the western 
branch of the Unadilla River, then called Eghwagy 
Creek. They were David Schuyler and Captain 
Johannas Bleeker. They were not traders, but 
delegates on their way from Albany to Onondaga 
charged with counteracting French intrigues. 

The next earliest names are those of German 
settlers, who in large companies, on three occasions, 
and perhaps four, passed down the valley on their 
way to Pennsylvania. They formed part of that 
large body of Palatines who have left so deep an im¬ 
pression on the Mohawk and Schoharie countries. 
They had originally left their homes on the Rhine in 
consequence of the devastation attending the wars 
of Louis XIV. In England they had met the five 
Indian chiefs taken over by Mayor Schuyler, who 

* Dr. Beauchamp’s rendering of this word is Home of the Old 
Warrior. 


35 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


offered them land in America, and Queen Anne, 
who had given them food and shelter, advanced the 
money to pay their expenses across the sea. 

Late in the year 1709, to the number of about 
4,000, they set sail, and lived successively in New 
York, Livingston Manor, and Schenectady, a hun¬ 
dred and fifty families in 1714 taking up lands at a 
place called Weiserdorp, which is now known as 
Middleburg, in Schoharie County. These families 
were in a state of great poverty. One “ borrowed a 
horse here, another there ; also a cow and plow har¬ 
ness,” and during the first year they “ made many 
meals on the wild potatoes and ground beans that 
grew in great abundance.” A moving spirit among 
them was the elder Conrad Weiser. 

When trouble arose over titles to their Schoharie 
lands, which were claimed by Robert Livingston 
and others, a serious wrangle ensued, resulting in 
the sending of a sheriff from New York to Weiser¬ 
dorp, a village of forty huts, constructed of logs, 
earth, and bark. A hostile reception awaited him, 
one of the incidents of which was an attack by a mob 
of women, led by Magdalene Zee (or Zeh), who car¬ 
ried the sheriff some distance on a rail, broke his 
ribs by pounding him with clubs, and otherwise did 
violence to him, the full details of which the present 
generation would not tolerate in print. 

The Germans concluded to submit the matter to 
the English sovereign, and three men, including 
Weiser, were sent to London. While at sea, the 
ship was attacked by pirates and Weiser “ three 
times tied up and floged, but would not confess to 
having money.” On arrival, they found that Queen 
Anne had died and that news of their attack on the 
sheriff had seriously prejudiced their case. One of 

36 


THE COMING OF WHITE MEN 


Weiser’s companions sailed for home in disgust and 
died at sea, while Weiser and the other were arrested 
and sent to prison—perhaps to the Tower, for 
Brown says Weiser spent a year in that ancient cas¬ 
tle. On being released the two men quarrelled. 
Weiser’s son says the trouble was they “ both had 
hard heads.” 

Dissatisfaction in Schoharie grew apace and finally 
a general migration set in for Conestoga, Pa. The 
route chosen was the Charlotte and Susquehanna 
rivers. Thirty families are said by Rupp to have 
gone down in the summer of 1723, “ a few months 
before Weiser’s return.” Some fifty others followed 
in 1725 and in 1729 another company departed. 

At the mouth of the Charlotte they built canoes 
with which to make the remainder of the journey, 
felling trees for the purpose. The tree-stumps were 
long remembered by Susquehanna settlers for their 
association with this migration. Twenty-five years 
later when Sir William Johnson applied for a patent 
he wished it to begin “ where the Germans made 
their canoes to go to Conestoga.” Household goods 
were transported in the canoes, and the horses and 
cattle driven along the Indian trail. Brown says 
deliberately that after reaching Conestoga, twelve 
horses broke from their stable and wandered away. 
A year and a half later ten of them were found at 
Weiserdorp, three hundred miles from Conestoga. 

The younger Conrad Weiser, who made this jour¬ 
ney, says there was want of leadership. Each man 
did as he pleased, “ and their obstanacy has stood in 
their way ever since.” Young Weiser rose to con¬ 
siderable eminence in Pennsylvania as an Indian 
agent, and his services to the Government were so 
important that Washington, standing at his grave 

37 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


in 1793, remarked that these services had been ren¬ 
dered in a difficult period and posterity would not 
forget him. 

The migration from Schoharie had an important 
influence on the future population of Pennsylvania 
and New York. Had these Palatines fared better in 
Schoharie, it is not unlikely that the upper Susque¬ 
hanna Valley would have been first peopled by that 
race instead of the Scotch-Irish, but the Palatines 
were not slow to inform their friends in the old 
country of their experience in New York and to ad¬ 
vise them to settle in Pennsylvania instead. Many 
of the Palatines never left Schoharie however, and 
many others remained to found thriving settlements 
along the valley of the Mohawk, of which enduring 
evidence survives in the geographical nomenclature. 
From that pioneer stock came the central patriotic 
figure in the battle of Oriskany—General Nicholas 
Herkimer. 

About 1722 young men sent out by Governor 
Burnet had reached Oghwaga. Fifteen years later 
the importance of the valley as a highway to the 
South and West had become fully understood. In 
1737 Cadwallader Colden, the Surveyor-General of 
the province, made an official report showing the 
importance that he attributed to it. u Goods may 
be carried,” he said, “from this lake (Otsego) in bat- 
toes or flat-bottom vessels through Pennsylvania to 
Maryland and Virginia, the current of the river run¬ 
ning everywhere easy without any cataracts in all 
that long space.” After describing the east and west 
branches of the Susquehanna, he added that “ by 
either of these branches goods may be carried to the 
mountains, and I am told that the passage through 
the mountains to branches of the Mississippi which 

38 


THE COMING OF WHITE MEN 


issue on the west side of these mountains is neither 
long nor difficult, by which means inland navigation 
may be had to the Bay of Mexico.” Twenty-five 
years later, at the close of the French War, Pouchot 
described the Susquehanna as “ navigable almost 
from its source,” and as “ flowing through a beauti¬ 
ful valley filled with very fine timber.” 

It was not until the time of Johnson’s trade activ¬ 
ity that men with large purposes were regularly 
established on the river. Johnson’s policy in send¬ 
ing his agents to Oghwaga, which he preferred to 
Oswego because of the absence of competition, re¬ 
sulted in its own reward. He became the most suc¬ 
cessful trader in the province. 

Johnson was a native of Ireland and a nephew of 
Sir Peter Warren, the owner of a large tract of land 
at the mouth of the Schoharie Creek, in what is now 
the town of Florida. Johnson had become War¬ 
ren’s agent, and had engaged in the fur trade on his 
own account. Unlike the average trader of that 
time, Johnson was honest and fair in his dealings. 
Conspicuous for humanity, he won the regard of 
the Indians very early, and he retained it through 
life. He married a German wife, and soon found 
himself on the road to great success as a man of 
business. In 1739 he made plans for his trading 
post at Oghwaga. From this place trained agents 
were sent out along the net-work of trails, making 
contracts with the Indians at their own door—a 
method giving him vast advantage over the men 
who did business with Indians at Albany and Sche¬ 
nectady. 

Albany had become very unpopular with the Ind¬ 
ians. The younger Weiser records a conversation 
he once had with an Onondaga chief named Canas- 

39 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


satego. “You know our practice,” said the chief; 
“ if a white man in travelling through our country 
enters one of our cabins, we all treat him as I do 
you. We dry him, if he is wet; we warm him if he 
is cold; and give him meat and drink that he may 
allay his hunger and thirst, and we spread soft furs 
for him to rest and sleep on. We demand nothing 
in return. But if I go into a white man’s house in 
Albany and ask for victuals and drink, they say, 
‘ where is your money P ’ and if I have none they 
say, ‘get out, you Indian dog.’ ” 

There is no dearth of testimony to show that 
Indians fared badly in bargains made at Albany. 
Peter Kalm, an observing traveller, who visited 
Albany in the middle of the eighteenth century, says, 
“ many persons have assured me that the Indians are 
frequently cheated in disposing of their goods, es¬ 
pecially when they are in liquor, and that sometimes 
they do not get one-half or one-tenth of the value of 
their goods. I have been witness to several transac¬ 
tions of this kind.” He refers to the “ avarice and 
selfishness of the inhabitants of Albany ” as well 
known. Few of the great fur traders have survived 
with good reputations. Parkman says many of 
them were “ ruffians of the coarsest stamp, who vied 
with each other in rapacity, violence, and profligacy.” 
They “cheated, cursed, and plundered the Indians 
and outraged their families.” Johnson was a very 
conspicuous exception to this too general rule. 


40 


PART II 


Missionaries and the 
French War 

1650-1769 





! 





























Jesuits and Church of 
England Men 

1650-1746 

A FTER the first explorers, seeking to extend 
the fur trade, came the Jesuits, interested in 
promoting the spiritual welfare of the sav¬ 
ages. The traders came from Fort Orange and New 
Amsterdam, the missionaries from the ancient St. 
Lawrence settlements of New France. Before 1650 
these devoted men from the great northern valley 
had arrived on territory now a part of New York 
State, bringing with them stout and enterprising 
souls. Morgan declares that the zeal and devotion 
which they displayed are “ unsurpassed in the his¬ 
tory of Christianity.” They “ traversed the forests 
of America alone and unprotected ; they dwelt in the 
depths of the wilderness without shelter and almost 
without raiment; they passed the ordeal of Indian 
captivity and the fire of the torture; they suffered 
from hunger and violence, but in the midst of all 
they never forgot the mission with which they were 
intrusted.” 

Several of these men acquired distinction that has 
made their labors a part of American history. Among 
them were Isaac Jogues, Bruyar, Le Jeune, Brebeuf 
and Gamier. Later came Peter Milet, who had 
marked success with the Oneidas, among whom he 
passed many years, securing a firm hold on their 
devotion. While it is not unlikely that Jogues saw 

43 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


some of the head-waters of the Susquehanna, for here 
were Mohawk hunting grounds, it is more probable 
that Jacques Bruyar actually came into that valley. 
He lived many years alternately among the Oneidas, 
Onondagas, and Mohawks, and was in the Iroquois 
lands for more than thirty years before the eigh¬ 
teenth century began. It was the fate of these mis¬ 
sionaries to lead roving lives like the Indians whom 
they sought to convert; they adopted Indian dress 
and names, and were often supposed to be Indians, 
circumstances which must have taken more than one 
of them on journeys along the Susquehanna trails. 
Campbell says they often went with the Indians on 
distant and hazardous expeditions, where they “ as¬ 
tonished their savage audiences with the splendor 
and imposing rites and ceremonies of the Roman 
Church.” 

The life of Father Jogues, better than perhaps 
any other story, illustrates the truth of Morgan’s 
tribute. Made a captive by the Mohawks and 
taken to their valley, he was forced to undergo the 
terrible ordeal of running the gauntlet—“ a narrow 
road to Paradise,” Jogues called it. His left thumb 
was cut off by a woman who used a clam-shell for 
the purpose. He was made to lie all night on his 
back, with his feet and hands outstretched and tied 
to stakes, and while in this position children were 
allowed to place hot ashes and coals on his body. 
He was led in triumph from village to village, and 
in each was newly tortured. As he accompanied his 
captors to their hunting grounds, “ shivering and 
half famished,” says Parkman, “ he followed them 
through the chill November forest and shared their 
wild bivouac in the depths of the wintry desolation.” 
Because he would not partake of meat, chosen as 

44 


JESUIT PRIESTS 

an offering to one of their heathen divinities, he 
“ starved in the midst of plenty.” At night, when 
the savages made merry around their fire, he 
“ crouched in a corner of the hut, gnawed by hun¬ 
ger and pierced to the bone with cold. He brought 
them fire wood like a squaw; he did their bidding 
without a murmur and patiently bore their abuse.” 
Huron Indians, captives like himself, he converted. 
Ears of unhusked corn wet with dew were thrown to 
him for food, and with this dew he baptized his 
converts. Parkman adds that in a remote and 
lonely spot he “ cut the bark in the form of a cross 
from the trunk of a great tree, and here he made his 
prayers.” 

Through the help of Corlear, a noble-hearted 
Dutchman, and of Dominie Megapolensis, Father 
Jogues finally escaped. He went to France, and 
Anne of Austria, the Queen, summoned him to her 
presence. This mother of Louis, the Sun King, 
“ kissed his mutilated hands, while ladies thronged 
round to do him homage.” Owing to his deformity 
of body, caused by torture, Jogues was unable to say 
mass. His case having been laid before the Pope, a 
special dispensation restored to him the sacred and 
cherished privilege. Father Jogues then returned 
to Canada, and the Jesuits again sent him into the 
Mohawk country, where he now met his fate. While 
entering an Indian house, to which he had been in¬ 
vited as a guest, he was barbarously murdered. The 
scene of this tragedy was near the present town of 
Auriersville. Parkman pronounces Jogues “ one of 
the purest examples of Roman Catholic virtue which 
the western world has seen.” 

Another Jesuit, who became a captive, was Joseph 
Bressani. In July, 1644, he wrote from the Iro- 

45 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


quois country to the General of the Jesuits in 
Rome : “ I do not know if your Paternity will rec¬ 
ognize the handwriting of one whom you once knew 
very well. The letter is soiled and ill written ; be¬ 
cause the writer has only one finger of his right hand 
left entire, and cannot prevent the blood from his 
wounds, which are still open, from staining the paper. 
His ink is gun-powder mixed with water and his 
table is the earth.” 

Jogues, Milet, Bruyar, and Bressani belonged to 
an early and disinterested generation. Their eu¬ 
logist, Parkman, shows that the Jesuits who came 
in later times had not the same apostolic simplicity. 
More properly they were the political agents of 
France, with eyes on the affairs of two worlds. For 
more than fifty years the English had to combat 
their influence, and in doing so sought aid from 
Protestant missionaries who really came to have an 
important share in the great struggle between Latin 
and Anglo-Saxon forces for supremacy. 

First among Protestants in the Mohawk country 
was Megapolensis, who, before closing his labors, 
had learned the language, preached in it fluently, 
and made many converts. He began his work at 
Albany about 1642 and served six years. Megapo¬ 
lensis says he preached also “ in the neighbor¬ 
hood,” and the Indians had been pleased to hear he 
intended going into “ their own country and castles 
(about three days’ journey farther inland) when ac¬ 
quainted with their language.” 

From the time of Megapolensis until Governor 
Dongan came over, was a generation, and not until 
Dongan’s time was vigorous work undertaken. In 
1687 Dongan asked the Indians not to “receive any 
French priests any more, having sent for English 

46 


JESUIT PRIESTS 

priests whom you can be supplied with all to con¬ 
tent.” In the same decade, in his request to the 
Indians to arrest unauthorized Susquehanna traders, 
Dongan made an exception in the case of “ the 
priests and one man with each or either of them.” 
Dongan, although a Romanist, was opposed to the 
Jesuits, being an English Governor first, and a Ro¬ 
manist afterward. He was the first English Govern¬ 
or who interfered with the Jesuits, and he violated 
his instructions in so doing. But he gave evidence 
of that clear understanding of French intrigue and 
its dangers which another Irishman, William John¬ 
son, was to have a better opportunity of putting in¬ 
to practice sixty years afterward. 

Dongan desired James II. to send out five or six 
priests to live at the Indian castles, since by this 
means French priests “ will be obliged to return to 
Canada, whereby the French will be divested of 
their pretences to the country and then we shall en¬ 
joy that trade without any fear of its being diverted.” 
He proposed that three priests continually travel 
from one Indian village to another. Though his 
design did not fully succeed, he made some headway 
with it. By 1687 he had successfully uprooted 
some of the French missions. That his conduct was 
statesmanlike, events that followed in the ensuing 
struggle amply proved. A few years after his time 
(in 1700) the Legislative Council of the province 
took up the war Dongan had begun and passed “ an 
act against Jesuits and Popish priests.” 

One of the Protestants of Dongan’s time was 
Dr. Dellius, a Dutchman. He was among the Mo¬ 
hawks before 1691, and baptized numbers of them. 
For his services he was allowed $300 in 1693, with 
a further sum for an interpreter. At Schenectady 

47 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


labored Bernardus Freeman, a Calvinist, who, in 
1701, reported that out of one hundred Mohawks, 
thirty-five were Christians. Mr. Freeman made a 
translation into Mohawk of the Ten Command¬ 
ments, the Athanasian Creed, and parts of the Prayer 
Book. His version was printed in New York in 

I 7 I 5* 

Work assumed a more systematic form in the 
new century. A petition was forwarded to Lon¬ 
don asking that ministers of the Church of Eng¬ 
land be sent to “instruct the Indians and prevent 
their being practised upon by the French priests 
and Jesuits.” Six clergymen were proposed, one 
for each nation, with two young men to attend 
them. 

Four years later the Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel in Foreign Parts sent out the Rev. Mr. 
Smith and the Rev. Thoroughgood Moor, each of 
whom was allowed £20 for his outfit and £100 
as yearly salary, with ^30, given by Queen Anne, 
for his passage. Of Mr. Smith nothing more is 
known, but Mr. Moor reached the field of his labors 
among the Mohawks and remained three years. 
He had little success and set sail for England, but 
was never heard from again. He has been credited 
with the authorship of the first book printed in the 
Mohawk tongue, “ Another Tongue brought in to 
Confess the Great Saviour of the World,” which 
traders were expected to distribute. After Mr. 
Moor, came Thomas Barclay, who remained from 
1708 until 1712, and has historic rank as the first 
rector of St. Peter’s Church in Albany. 

When Queen Anne’s war closed, in 1712, the 
Rev. William Andrews, who had already been in 
the country and knew something of the Mohawk 

48 


CHURCH OF ENGLAND MEN 


language, came over and spent three years among 
the Mohawks and Oneidas. With money supplied 
by Queen Anne, a fort one hundred and fifty feet 
square was built at the Mohawk castle known after¬ 
ward as Fort Hunter, with a block-house at each 
corner and quarters for twenty men. The Indians 
built a school-house thirty feet long and twelve wide, 
and from distant places prepared to have children 
sent for instruction. At one time Mr. Andrews 
had twenty children at this school, between sixty 
and seventy regular attendants at church, and when 
all the Indians were at home, as many as one hun¬ 
dred and fifty attendants, of whom thirty-eight were 
communicants. 

Andrews came out to teach the Oneidas as well as 
the Mohawks, and bore as his credentials a letter 
from the Archbishop of Canterbury. In going to 
the Oneidas he passed over one hundred miles 
“ through a vast wilderness of woods ” and along 
a narrow Indian path. Wherever he labored the 
great difficulty was to overcome the demoralizing 
influence of hunting expeditions in which boys as 
well as men engaged. Mr. Andrews complained 
that nothing he did seemed to last. An evil influ¬ 
ence was exerted by Dutch traders who falsely told 
the Indians he would claim one-tenth of all they had. 
He describes the Indians as a “ sordid, mercenary, 
beggardly people, having but little sense of religion, 
honor or goodness among them; living generally 
filthy, brutish lives ; ” and being of such “ inhuman 
savage natures ” as to kill and eat each other. 
“ Heathen they are,” he said, “ and heathen they 
will still be.” Mr. Andrews returned in 1718. 
At St. Peter’s Church in Albany, has long been 
preserved an interesting relic of his time—a set 

49 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


of church plate given by Queen Anne in 1712, 
for use among the Onondagas, while at Fort 
Hunter may be seen a stone rectory of the same 
period. 

Queen Anne’s interest in the Indians dated from 
the visit of several of their kings to London, in 1709— 
10. They were taken over by Colonel Peter Schuy¬ 
ler, Mayor of Albany, a man of fortune, public 
spirit, and great influence among the Indians, who 
knew him always as “ Quidder,” the nearest ap¬ 
proach they could make to pronunciation of his 
name. France at that time was making serious 
inroads against the English in New York. A criti¬ 
cal time had come in that century-long contest 
between two civilizations for supremacy in the New 
World. Colonel Schuyler made this visit at his own 
expense in order to urge the English Government 
to take more vigorous measures against the French. 
Marked interest was shown in the Indians. They 
became the lions of social and public life, and at 
Court were received with all the honors of elaborate 
ceremonial. 

In 1731 the Rev. John Miln, who, in 1728, had 
become rector of St. Peter’s, engaged to visit the 
Mohawks four times a year and to remain five days 
on each visit. He appointed the Rev. Henry Bar¬ 
clay catechist at Fort Hunter. By 1741, in two 
towns Barclay had five hundred Indians under his 
influence, of whom fifty-eight were communicants. 
In 1743, only a few unbaptized ones remained. 
Two years later war with France interfered with this 
work. The French laid the frontier in ashes, took 
one hundred prisoners, and the county of Albany, 
that had been populous and flourishing, became a 
scene of desolation. After the war closed, in 1746, 

5 ° 



CHURCH OF ENGLAND MEN 


the Rev. John Ogilvie, a graduate of Yale College, 
who had studied theology under the Bishop of 
London and became rector of St. Peter’s in Albany 
in 1750, went into the country, and labored there 
periodically for many years “ amid great discour¬ 
agements and in the very outskirts of civilization.” 
An assistant in his work was the Rev. John Jacob 
Oel, a Palatine, who remained until the Revolution 
began. He was long settled at Canajoharie, but 
labored also among the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, 
many of whom he baptized. Mr. Oel in the Sus¬ 
quehanna Valley found rivals in the Non-conformists 
from New England, against whom he made com¬ 
plaints.* 

After Mr. Ogilvie, came to St. Peter’s the Rev. 
Henry Munro, who labored among the Mohawks 
until 1770, when his missionary duties were trans¬ 
ferred to a resident clergyman, the Rev. John 
Stuart, of whom more will be read in a later chap¬ 
ter of this work. Just at the close of Mr. Munro’s 
labors he dedicated at Canajoharie the chapel for 
the Indians, which Sir William Johnson erected 
there and which still stands. 

* Brown refers to a place “ called by the Indians Awquawge (Ogh- 
waga) where the first Gospel was taught unto the Indians, by one Elisha 
Gan.” He gives no date however. 


S' 


II 


Missionaries from 
New England 

I 745 _I 74^ 

FTER the Church of England missionaries 



came the Non-conformists. First on the 


JL JL.list in influence on the Susquehanna Valley 
is the Rev. John Sergeant, who, at Stockbridge, 
Mass., in 1736, had founded an Indian mission 
with Timothy Woodbridge serving as conductor of 
a school for Indian boys. Sergeant had been en¬ 
gaged by the Boston Commissioners of the Society 
in Scotland for Propagating the Gospel, and during 
fourteen years had given much faithful devotion 
to the cause. He not only taught Indians in and 
near Stockbridge but went elsewhere seeking fields 
of labor. On one of these tours, made in 1744, he 
visited the Susquehanna Valley. He was in a sense 
the pioneer New England missionary in this field. 

In the neighboring town of Northampton, then 
lived Jonathan Edwards, who had shown much 
interest in the Indians, several of whom he had 
taught. No man more than he had encouraged the 
noble and successful David Brainerd in his work on 
the frontier of New York, New Jersey, and Penn¬ 
sylvania between the years 1744 and 1747. Brain- 
erd’s labors in the main were on the Delaware near 
the site of Easton, but he labored also on the Sus¬ 
quehanna in Pennsylvania. In 1745 he appears to 
have gone to Oghwaga, since he preached on the 





NEW ENGLAND MISSIONARIES 


Susquehanna to Indians whom he had known at 
Stockbridge. 

In those days, at Edwards’s house lived the Rev. 
Elihu Spencer. Brainerd, while in Boston in the 
very last stages of consumption, recommended Spen¬ 
cer to the Commissioners, who wished to settle a 
missionary in the upper Susquehanna Valley. Al¬ 
most the last letters Brainerd wrote related to Spen¬ 
cer’s coming. In 1748, just after Brainerd breathed 
his last, Spencer set out on his journey. Thus we 
have Sergeant, Brainerd, and Spencer as the forerun¬ 
ners of that numerous company who in the succeed¬ 
ing twenty-five years made these lands the scene of 
busy endeavors. 

For the coming of these men credit belongs to 
Sir William Johnson. As early as Henry Barclay’s 
time, Oghwaga had become a centre of English in¬ 
fluence. Near Fort Hunter, where Barclay had his 
post, Johnson was then living, and in 1746, when 
war with France began anew, Johnson opened com¬ 
munication with the Indians at Oghwaga, secured 
their friendship, and sent them belts. To a council 
in Albany he was able at this time to summon sixty 
Oghwaga warriors, “ with the usual train of old men, 
women and children,” who came up in charge of 
Captain Vrooman and Captain Staats. The warriors 
said they knew several roads to Canada, and wished 
“to see the hatchet that we may grasp it.” Four¬ 
teen of them were at once despatched against the 
enemy in a company of sixty men. 

When Mr. Spencer arrived in 1748, he therefore 
came to a savage people who were not strangers to 
English influence, religious, as well as political and 
military. He was a young man of twenty-seven, a 
graduate of Yale, and from Brainerd had learned 

53 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


some of the rudiments of the Indian language. In 
1748 he had been ordained, and in September, the 
war with France having come to a temporary close, 
went to Oghwaga. He remained until spring, and 
became very much interested in his work, although 
he had limited success. He made slow progress 
with the language. “ Though I was very desirous 
of learning the Indian tongue,” he afterward said, 
“ yet through my short residence at Ononghquage 
and the surly disposition of my interpreter, I con¬ 
fess my proficiency was not great.” But he ac¬ 
quired enough knowledge to enable him to make a 
translation of the Lord’s Prayer. It is as follows : 

Soungwauneha, caurounkyawga, tehseetaroan, sauhsone- 
yousta, esa, sawaneyou, okettauhsela, ehneauwoung, na, cau¬ 
rounkyawga, niighwonshauga, neattewehnesalauga, tauguaunau- 
toronoantougsick, toantaugweleewheyoustaung, cheneeyeut, 
chaquatautehwheyoustaunna, toughsau, taugwaussareneh, tau- 
autoltenaugaloughtoungga, nasawne, sacheautaugwass, coan- 
tehsalohaunzaickaw, esa, sawaunneyou, esa, sashautzta, esa, 
soungwasoung, chenneauhaungwa, auwen. 

Among Spencer’s converts were two Indians who 
long remained faithful allies and assistants to the 
missionaries who followed him to Oghwaga—Peter 
Agwrondougwas, known as “ Good Peter,” and 
Isaac Dakayenensese. Peter was the chief of the 
Oneidas, and had been born on the Susquehanna. 
His greatest gift was oratory, in which he had no 
superior in his time among the Iroquois. 

From the correspondence of Edwards it appears 
that Spencer “ went through many difficulties and 
hardships, with little or no success.” His interpre¬ 
ter was “ a woman that had formerly been a captive 
among the Caughnauwaga Indians in Canada, who 

54 





NEW ENGLAND MISSIONARIES 


speak the same language with those Oneidas, except 
with some small variation of dialect.” Edwards 
explains further in regard to the interpreter, who 
was Mrs. Benjamin Ashley : 

She went with her husband, an Englishman, and is one 
of the people we here call Separatists ; who showed the 
spirit he was of there in that wilderness beyond what we 
knew before. He differed with and opposed Mr. Spencer 
in his measures and had an ill influence on his wife who, I 
fear, was very unfaithful, refusing to interpret for Mr. 
Spencer more than one discourse in a week, a sermon upon 
the Sabbath, and utterly declined assisting him in discourses 
and conversations in the week-time. And her interpreta¬ 
tions on the Sabbath were performed very unfaithfully, as at 
last appeared. 

Spencer’s short residence at Oghwaga was fol¬ 
lowed five years later by a missionary expedition, 
which is better known, and has often through mis¬ 
take been accepted as the earliest of such enter¬ 
prises in this valley—the one led by Gideon Haw¬ 
ley and Timothy Woodbridge. That Spencer had 
no share in it is explained by the fact that in the 
meantime he had left New England and become set¬ 
tled as pastor over a Presbyterian church in Eliza¬ 
beth, N. J. He was afterward settled in Jamaica, 
L. I., and finally in Trenton, where he remained 
from 1769 until 1784, the year of his death. From 
1752 until his death, he was a guardian of Princeton 
College. H e was a facile extempore speaker, and 
his talents in that direction earned for him the famil¬ 
iar appellation of “ready money Spencer.” His 
native place was East Haddam, Conn., and he was 
a brother of General Spencer of the Revolution. 


55 


Ill 


Gideon Hawley’s Coming 

■753 

W ITH the close of the war in 1748, mis¬ 
sionary work at Stockbridge was taken up 
with new vigor. In Timothy Wood- 
bridge’s school, in the following year, were fifty- 
five students, including several from Oghwaga. 
At the same time a school for Mohawks was in 
charge of Captain Kellogg, with Kellogg’s sister, 
Mrs. Ashley, serving as interpreter. In 1750 some 
twenty Mohawks had arrived, and in 1751 about 
twenty more, including the celebrated King Hen¬ 
drick, who a few years later was killed in the battle 
of Lake George. 

In 1749 the mission at Stockbridge lost its leader 
by the death of Sergeant. Edwards was chosen to 
succeed him, but this was not until 1751. The 
mission then contained 218 Indians, of whom 182 
had been baptized, and 42 were communicants. 
Edwards, in the year of his appointment, attended 
the great Indian council which met in Albany. 
Here he learned how concerned the English had 
become in regard to the growth of French influence. 
The younger Conrad Weiser had heard at Onon¬ 
daga that a Jesuit had converted one hundred men 
and taken them to Montreal, where they received as 
presents gorgeous coats and hats ornamented with 
silver and gold. Sir Peter Warren, Johnson’s 
uncle, then one of the leading men on Manhattan 

56 








GIDEON HAWLEY’S COMING 


Island, gave the Stockbridge school $3,500, and 
Johnson had been directed to use his influence to 
aid it all he could. 

After Edwards’s return from Albany, Gideon 
Hawley arrived at Stockbridge and was placed in 
charge of one of the schools. Woodbridge, who 
had known Brainerd intimately, and had now been 
ten years at Stockbridge, had the other. Both 
teachers were popular with the Indians, and espe¬ 
cially with the Mohawks and Oneidas ; but a resi¬ 
dent trustee, in his ambition to divert society funds 
from the proper channels, seriously impaired the 
usefulness of the school, and the Indians, becoming 
dissatisfied, resolved to return to New York. Some 
of these Indians had gone to Stockbridge from 
Oghwaga after Spencer’s return, having “ mani¬ 
fested a thirst for Christian knowledge.” One was 
named Jonah and another Sharrack. 

In these circumstances it was decided that Haw¬ 
ley and Woodbridge should themselves go to Ogh¬ 
waga, at which place Edwards told the Boston Com¬ 
missioners the hope for successful work mainly lay. 
The chief seat of missionary operations was to be 
“ the country about Oghwaga near the head of the 
Susquehanna river.” • Edwards wrote further: 

All but one or two of them are of the nation of the 
Oneidas and they appear not to be looked upon as con¬ 
temptible by the rest of the Five Nations : * from what was 
openly said of them at a public council by the sachems of 
the Mohawks who advised us to treat the Oghwagas with 
care and kindness as excelling their own tribe in religion 
and virtue, giving at the same time many instances of their 
virtue. Oghwaga is within the territory of the Six Nations 

* The Iroquois were now the Six Nations, the Tuscaroras having 
entered the League thirty years before Edwards wrote. 

57 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


and not so far from the other settlements but that it may 
be convenient for making excursions to the other tribes : as 
convenient perhaps as any place that can be found. It lies 
in a pleasant, fruitful country, surrounded by many settle¬ 
ments of Indians on every side and where the way is open 
by easy passage down the river which runs through one of 
the most pleasant and fruitful parts of America for four 
hundred or five hundred miles, exceedingly well peopled on 
both sides and on its several branches by Indians. Ogh- 
waga is on the road by which several of the nations pass as 
they go to war with Southern nations. There are several 
towns of the Oneidas and several missionaries might prob¬ 
ably find sufficient employment in those parts. 

Hawley finally departed on his mission, in May, 
1753. He left Stockbridge in company with 
Woodbridge, Ashley, and Mrs. Ashley, the latter 
destined soon to die at the mission. Hawley says 
Ashley was taken along from necessity, but he 
proved to be “ a fanatic and on that account unfit 
to be employed in the mission.” They were to go 
“ about one hundred miles beyond any settlement 
of Christian people.” Before leaving the Mohawk 
Valley, introduced probably by Edwards, they “at 
sunset,” says Hawley, “ were politely received at 
Colonel Johnson’s gate by himself in person. Here 
we lodged. It was favorable to our mission to have 
his patronage which I never lost.” Here also they 
met several Indians who lived at Oghwaga, and 
Hawley mentions two ministers who were settled 
near Johnson’s house, one of whom, a Calvinist, 
seems to have been the Rev. William Johnston who 
afterward founded the settlement at Sidney. 

From the Schoharie country the expedition 
crossed the hills to the Susquehanna, having ob¬ 
tained, besides a man with a horse to carry two sacks 

58 



GIDEON HAWLEY’S COMING 


of flour, three or four “blacks ” to accompany them. 
They also had a “ fellow named Pallas, a vagrant 
Indian, whose company we had reason to regret but 
could not refuse upon our mission.” Hawley says 
the road “ was generally obstructed by fallen trees, 
old logs, miry places, pointed rock and entangling 
roots.” They were “ alternately on the ridge of a 
lofty mountain and in the depths of the valley.” 

Finally they came to rivulets which poured their 
waters into the Susquehanna. By one of these they 
halted, kindled a fire, made their prayers, and passed 
the night sleeping on the bare earth rolled up in 
blankets. Late on the following day they reached 
Towanoendalough, where was a village of “three 
wigwams and about thirty souls.” Here the Sus¬ 
quehanna was first seen, and its size disappointed 
them, as well it might, since here the stream is 
scarcely more than a creek. They lodged in “ a 
little store house set on crotches six feet or more 
from the ground.” * 

At Towanoendalough the party were joined by a 
trader named George Winedecker and a companion, 
who had come down from Otsego Lake with a boat¬ 
load of goods, including rum, and were bound for 
Oghwaga and the intermediate Indian villages. The 
ill effects of Winedecker’s rum were soon to be seen. 
During the night spent at Towanoendalough the 
party were awakened by the “ howling of the Ind¬ 
ians over their dead,” and in the morning saw 
Indian women “skulking in the adjacent bushes for 

* As Hawley had an Indian guide, we may assume that he followed one 
of the trails which ran into the Susquehanna from the Schoharie Valley. 
Thus he might have crossed over to the upper waters of the Charlotte, as 
the Palatines had done twenty years before, or proceeded to the head of 
Schenevus Creek, descending which he would have reached the river 
near Colliers, following the present course of the railroad. 

59 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


fear of the intoxicated Indians who were drinking 
deeper.” These women were carefully hiding guns, 
hatchets, and other dangerous weapons. 

From this point to Oghwaga was a journey of 
three days, “ and how bad the travelling is we can¬ 
not tell,” said Hawley. “ Some went by water and 
others by land with the horses. I went with the 
land party.” In Winedecker’s boat went Wood- 
bridge and the interpreter, and in a canoe purchased 
at this place were sent the provisions and baggage. 
The half-intoxicated Indians “pursued the party by 
water in which was Mr. Woodbridge and the party 
by land. One came so near us with a club as to 
strike at us and he hit one of our horses.” At 
Wauteghe they found fruit-trees and a tract of 
cleared land extending along the river, but there 
were no inhabitants to be seen. Hawley had a 
narrow escape from death at the hands of Pallas, 
who was handling a loaded gun when in liquor. 
Pallas was aiming to shoot some ducks and fired 
very close to Hawley. Hawley was always inclined 
to think Pallas intended to kill him. This incident 
occurred twelve miles below Wauteghe, “where a 
small stream empties into the river.” The horses 
were turned out to graze for the night, but by 
morning three or four of them had returned to 
Wauteghe. 

On the following day, when the horses had been 
recovered, the party proceeded six or eight miles 
farther, and stopped at Kaghneantasis or the 
whirlpool, “ because there was herbage for our 
horses.” Next day they arrived at Unadilla, and 
about noon passed “ a considerable village, some 
families of which were of the Houssautunnuk Ind¬ 
ians.” As it was Sunday, Winedecker was not 

60 



GIDEON HAWLEY’S COMING 


permitted to land. The Indians “stood on the 
banks and beheld us.” Pallas was sent ashore at 
this point and his services dispensed with. From 
the Northwest, says Hawley, “ a stream here rolls 
into Susquehanna.” Its name was “Teyonadel- 
hough.” They landed five or six miles farther 
down and put up for the night. Oghwaga moun¬ 
tain was sighted the next day, and then Hawley 
knew his journey was nearly ended. He arrived 
near nightfall, the weather cold and wet. A cordial 
welcome came from the Indians, but the accommo¬ 
dations for living were rude and unwholesome. 

On the following day, June 5th, “many were 
worse for the rum that came with us,” and one of 
the horses injured an Indian boy. The Indians 
became enraged at this and made threats against the 
whole party, but in the afternoon “came chiefs of 
the Oghwagas and assured us that these insulting 
and ill-behaved Indians did not belong to them, 
but were foreigners.” These chiefs had come up 
from the lower settlement. Hawley says he opened 
a treaty with the chiefs “ upon the affairs of our ad¬ 
vent and the importance of our business in every 
way.” 

All in all, it was a singular expedition that went 
to Oghwaga, this mixed band of missionaries, trad¬ 
ers, and Indians. Here were red men who had ex¬ 
pressed a desire for religious teaching ; here were 
red men with a fatal fondness for strong drink, and 
here, in one party journeying down the valley, were 
missionaries with the Bible and a trader with the 
rum—the two gifts of the white man to the Indian. 
It soon became apparent that the work at Oghwaga 
which needed attention first was the red man’s fond¬ 
ness for fire-water. Woodbridge, a few weeks later, 

61 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


returned to Albany and carried with him a speech 
which the Indians had desired him to present to 
William Johnson. In part it is as follows, and its 
pathos cannot escape the reader: 

My brother Col. Johnson, hear me now. We are 
both nations together under one head at Oghwaga. My 
brother Warraghiyagey,* here we are assembled under one 
head. I say, hear me now. The Governor and great men 
have took pity on us and come so far to bring us to light 
and religion that we may go straight. My brother, my 
dear brother, pity us: your batteau is often here at our 
place and brings us rum and that has undone us. Some¬ 
times on Sunday our people drink and cannot attend their 
duty, which makes it extremely difficult. But now we 
have cut it off: we have put a stop to it. 

You must not think one man or a few men have done 
it; we all of us both old and young have done it. It is 
done by the whole. My brother, I would have you tell 
the great men at Albany, Schenectady and Schoharie not to 
bring us any more rum. I would have you bring us pow¬ 
der, lead and clothing which we want and other things 
what you please; only do not bring us any more liquors. 

*The name by which the Indians called Johnson after they had 
adopted him. 


6 2 



IV 


War Interrupts Mr. 
Hawley’s Work 


i75 6 


M R. HAWLEY had not been long at 
Oghwaga when a new conflict arose with 
the French. Johnson in 1751 had made 
striking headway in his efforts to cement the Indian 
attachment, but in 1754 so grave was the outlook, 
that another and greater council, in reality a con¬ 
gress, was called at Albany, to which were invited 
delegates from all the colonies in America. Stone 
calls this “the most august assembly which up to 
that time had ever been held in the western world.” 
Its primary object was to make still stronger the 
alliance with the Six Nations, but in American his¬ 
tory it has other rank and eminence. At this con¬ 
gress was brought to official attention the famous 
Plan of Union, mainly drawn up by Franklin, which 
in an organic sense marks the beginning of the his¬ 
tory of the United States. John Bigelow has char¬ 
acterized it as “ the first coherent scheme ever pro¬ 
pounded for securing a permanent federal union of 
the thirteen colonies.” 

England rejected the plan because of its democratic 
features, and the colonies because it had too much 
regard for the royal prerogative. Acceptance of it 
would unquestionably have saved both lands a world 
of direst trouble, but the name of Washington 

6 3 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


scarcely could have been known to history. At 
this congress Gouldsborough Banyar, the Deputy 
Secretary of the Council of the Province, who after¬ 
ward had large landed possessions" in the Susque¬ 
hanna Valley, acted as one of the secretaries, and 
Martin Kellogg was an interpreter, in which capac¬ 
ity Kellogg also saw service at Oghwaga. Indians 
from Oghwaga were present. 

Hawley early realized the risk that attended his 
stay in the valley, but he remained at his post more 
than a year longer. Not until war was actually in 
progress did he depart. A son of Jonathan Ed¬ 
wards, Jonathan, Jr., then only ten years old, who, at 
his father’s desire, had spent six months with Haw¬ 
ley, learning the Oneida tongue, was, however, sent 
home. For a part of the distance an Indian car¬ 
ried the boy on his back. 

Thirty years afterward, when this boy had become 
President of Union College, he published a book on 
Indian languages, in which he referred to his expe¬ 
rience among the Indians. When he was six years 
of age his father had removed with his family to 
Stockbridge, which at that time was inhabited by 
Indians almost solely. Indians being the nearest 
neighbors, he “ constantly associated with them; 
their boys were my daily schoolmates and play¬ 
fellows. Out of my father’s house I seldom heard 
any language spoken besides the Indian. By these 
means I acquired knowledge of that language and a 
great facility in speaking it. It became more famil¬ 
iar to me than my native tongue. I knew the names 
of some things in Indian which I did not know in 
English: even all my thoughts ran in Indian.” 

In December, 1755, Indians came to Oghwaga 
with accounts of discontent in Pennsylvania as a re- 

64 



WAR INTERRUPTS MR. HAWLEY 


suit of the defeat of Braddock. Hawley at once 
communicated the facts to Johnson, with a strong 
recommendation that a fort be erected at Oghwaga, 
the one already existing at Cherry Valley being too 
far distant from the point of danger. The discon¬ 
tented Indians were Delawares, who, some years 
before, had left their own river and settled at 
Wyoming. By the defeat of Braddock they had 
lost faith in the strength of the English, and under 
French influence had threatened to desolate the whole 
Pennsylvania frontier. In Northampton County 
fifty houses had been burned and over one hundred 
persons murdered and taken into captivity. Virginia 
settlements had also suffered. Early in the year 
1756 the Delawares started northward. 

By May so many had departed that from Shamo- 
kin to Wyalusing, Mr. Kulp says, “there reigned 
the silence of the grave.” Jonathan Edwards, hear¬ 
ing of these events, wrote that “ there is great dan¬ 
ger that Mr. Hawley’s mission and ministry there 
will be entirely broken up.” Some friendly Del¬ 
awares arrived at Johnstown during this season, 
with word that one hundred others were on their 
way from Oghwaga in want of food. Johnson at 
once sent word to John Wells, of Cherry Valley, 
whom a Tory was afterward to murder during the 
Revolution, and to Robert Flint to supply them with 
all that they needed. In August a young sachem 
named Thomas arrived from Oghwaga with fifty- 
four men, women, and children, and said he was 
ready to go to war. John Wells, from plans pre¬ 
pared in Albany, built the fort Hawley had recom¬ 
mended, and Hawley retired from his mission. The 
fort stood about a mile and a half above Windsor 
village, on the east side of the river. 

65 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Proceeding to Johnstown, Hawley attended an 
Indian council, and then served as an army chaplain 
in an expedition from Albany to Crown Point. 
Johnson himself in the following year commanded 
the English forces at the battle of Lake George, of 
which, through his victory, he became the hero. 
Wounded in the battle, he remained a cripple for 
the rest of his life. England granted him the sum 
of $ 2 5,000, and the King made him a baronet. 
Hawley attempted to return to his work at Ogh- 
waga, but the enterprise proved to be “ too hazard¬ 
ous to be prosecuted.” He went as far as Cherry 
Valley in December, 1756, “but could not safely 
penetrate into the wilderness, my mission being 
nearly one hundred miles beyond any plantation of 
whites.” In the following spring he received a let¬ 
ter from Johnson, “ which the Indians desired him 
to write me,” inviting him back to his mission, and 
again started to return. He got as far as Albany 
but had trouble to find a companion, and when the 
small-pox broke out, definitely abandoned the un¬ 
dertaking. 

Had Hawley reached Oghwaga, his work could 
not have prospered. In October of this year chiefs 
wrote to Johnson that they had news “ of a company 
of about thirty men being at Cheningo,* going to 
war against our brethren, the English.” Two men 
had been sent down to warn them off, but “ in spite 
of all that we and our brethren, the Nanticokes, 
could do, they marched along until we met them a 
second time when, after a long council, they turned 
back but nine.” The chiefs begged Johnson “to 

w In the Oneida dialect written Ochenang, and meaning bull thistles. 
The place was afterward called Chenango Point, and is now Bingham¬ 
ton. 


66 






WAR INTERRUPTS MR. HAWLEY 


be strong brother and not keep this news private, but 
to give notice to all the towns.” 

Information had also reached them of “another 
great company not far from Tioga, coming the same 
way, mixed with French, and will be here in a few 
days.” It was after such correspondence, joined to 
his experience in the war, that Johnson, in 1757, 
wrote concerning the Oghwagas and others on the 
upper Susquehanna : “ They have always, and dur¬ 
ing this war constantly, shown themselves firmly at¬ 
tached to our interests, and no Indians have been 
more ready to come and join his Majesty’s arms.” 
He added that they were “a flourishing and increas¬ 
ing people,” and were determined “ to live and die 
with us.” 

In November of this year fell a blow which sent 
consternation through the frontier—the massacre 
and burning of German Flatts. So great was the 
terror, that at Cherry Valley and other places set¬ 
tlers sent their goods and valuables to Albany and 
Schenectady. Stone remarks that at one time it 
seemed “ as if these settlements would be entirely 
depopulated.” 

Indeed the whole course of that final struggle with 
France created a state of alarm on this frontier, ren¬ 
dered all the more intense by the attitude of the 
four western Iroquois nations. The defeat of Brad- 
dock had weakened, if not actually broken, their 
allegiance to the English. Tryon County put eight 
hundred men into the field, one company being sta¬ 
tioned at Cherry Valley in command of Captain 
Robert McKean of whom in the Border Wars there 
will be more to chronicle in this history. 

In these gloomy circumstances the labors of Gid¬ 
eon Hawley in this valley closed. His work had 

67 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


in no small way been fruitful. Among his aids had 
been the two “ pious Indians,” named Isaac Dakay- 
enensese and Peter Agwrondougwas, whom Spen¬ 
cer had converted. After Hawley’s departure Peter 
carried on the missionary work alone, preaching at 
Oghwaga, and making journeys to other villages. 
In 1792 John Trumbull painted a miniature of 
Peter that may still be seen in Yale University. 
After Mr. Hawley’s failure to return, Peter made a 
journey to Lebanon in midwinter, through deep 
snows, to ask for a new minister. Mr. Hawley con¬ 
tinued his labors among Indians elsewhere. In 
1758 he was settled over some tribes at Leicester, 
Conn., and later over others in Massachusetts, where 
he spent nearly half a century “ in the most bene- 
ficient and self-denying labors for the salvation of 
his Indian brethren.” He died in 1807 at the age 
of eighty. He was a native of Bridgeport and a 
graduate of Yale. 


68 


V 


New Men at Oghwaga 


1762-1763 



FTER the fall of Quebec, when tne English 


became masters of North America east of 


A-the Mississippi and north of Florida, other 
missionaries took up Hawley’s work. The Rev. 
Eli Forbes went down in June, 1762, having with 
him the Rev. Asaph Rice and an interpreter named 
Gunn, who is, perhaps, the missionary referred to by 
Brown as Gan. They went by the Mohawk to 
Canajoharie,* and thence to Cherry Valley, follow¬ 
ing the river to Oghwaga, now a town of three hun¬ 
dred inhabitants, chiefly Oneidas. Here they found 
Good Peter, and so impressed was Forbes with his 
character and work that he described him as the 
equal of any Englishman he knew in his Christian 
virtues and abilities. With their arrival we have a 
new chapter to chronicle in the missionary history 
of this valley. 

In addition to the Stockbridge school, New Eng¬ 
land in those times possessed an institution for 
Indian boys at Lebanon, where, in 1743—five years 
before Spencer came down to Oghwaga—the Rev. 
Dr. Eleazer Wheelock had begun to teach Samson 
Occum. In 1759 Occum became an ordained min¬ 
ister, and then in 1761 went among the Oneidas as 
a missionary, with a letter from Johnson. He was 

* Meaning The Pot That Washes Itself, a reference to the circular 
gorge in the creek near its mouth. 


69 







THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


sent out by the Boston commissioners, and perhaps 
visited Oghwaga. Dr. Wheelock’s success with 
this Indian and others—and Occum rose to con¬ 
siderable repute afterward as a preacher—induced 
him to receive Indian children from New York, and 
as reports from Mr. Hawley at Oghwaga reached 
him, his hopes and plans for the civilization of the 
red man assumed large proportions. He gained 
the ear of Johnson as well as his confidence through 
having as one of his students a youth who was af¬ 
terward to write his name large in the history of this 
frontier—Joseph Brant. Dr. Wheelock’s school fi¬ 
nally aroused the interest of nearly all the Colonial 
officials in America, who recommended it to their 
friends in England as “ one of the noblest and most 
worthy objects of their Christian beneficence.” The 
Rev. C. J. Smith was sent to England to solicit aid, 
and in time a total of about $47,500 was secured 
for the enterprise, the King heading the list with 
$ 1,000. 

Dr. Wheelock desired to secure a tract of land 
for an Indian educational institution, and many let¬ 
ters from him to Johnson have been preserved. 
His experience and his information had made him 
confident that a great work could be done among 
the Six Nations. Johnson, in 1763, wrote that the 
Oghwaga, Mohawk, Schoharie, and Canada Indians 
were “determined to live and die with the English,” 
and that this was “ due in great measure to the little 
knowledge they have acquired of our religion which 
I heartily wish was more known to them and the 
rest.” In the same year Dr. Wheelock proposed 
that “ a tract of land, fifteen or twenty miles square, 
or four townships, on the west bank of the Sus¬ 
quehanna river be given to form an Indian school.” 

70 






NEW MEN AT OGHWAGA 


To this scheme Johnson was not favorably disposed; 
he thought the education of Indians could be best 
carried on in places remote from Indian influence— 
a view to which, after some further experience, Dr. 
Wheelock came round. 

Dr. Wheelock then proposed that something be 
done in the Wyoming country, where, he wrote, “ I 
understand some of our people are about to settle 
on a new purchase on the Susquehanna: if it does 
not disoblige and prejudice the Indians, I should 
be glad, and it may be if that settlement should go 
on, a door may be open for my design on that 
purchase.” Sir William said in reply that it would 
be “ highly improper to attempt any settlement in 
their country as they (the Indians) are greatly dis¬ 
gusted at the great thirst which we all seem to show 
for their lands, and therefore I must give it as my 
opinion that any settlement on the Susquehanna 
may prove fatal to those who should attempt to 
establish themselves thereon, as the Indians have 
all declared, not only their greatest aversion there¬ 
to, but have all threatened to prevent such settle¬ 
ment.” About this time Johnson wrote to the 
Lords of Trade that some of the missionaries had 
too often used their influence to get lands, and the 
Mohawks had lately told him “ they apprehended 
the reason they had not clergy as formerly amongst 
them was because they had no more lands to spare.” 

Dr. Wheelock at one period unquestionably had 
great faith in the possibility of elevating the red 
men. In 1762 he said that for several years faith¬ 
ful men had been at work in Oghwaga. “ The 
Indians are in some measure civilized,” he wrote, 
“ some of them baptised, a number of them, in a 
judgment of charity, real Christians.” They had a 

7 1 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


sachem who was “ a man of understanding ” and 
“ entirely friendly to the design of a school.” Dr. 
Wheelock thought there was opportunity for one 
hundred missionaries and as many interpreters on 
the Susquehanna and elsewhere. In the following 
year he reported that Samuel Ashpo (or Ashbow) 
had spent six weeks at Jeningo, “ from which he 
was obliged to retreat on account of a rupture be¬ 
tween the Indians and the English.” This referred 
to the conspiracy of Pontiac. In March, 1763, 
Forbes and Rice went to Oghwaga. They gathered 
a church and set up two schools, one for adults and 
one for children. In September Forbes returned 
to Lebanon, taking with him four Indian boys, one 
of whom was eventually graduated from Dr. Wheel- 
ock’s school. 


72 








VI 


Pontiac’s War and After It 

1763-1768 

M R. RICE remained at his post until, per¬ 
haps, the end of the summer of 1763; but 
not longer. In the Far West had now 
been organized the conspiracy led by Pontiac. Pon¬ 
tiac had fought with the French against Braddock, 
and, with the French cause now lost, aspired on his 
own account to wrest vengeance from the English. 
His conspiracy was the last remnant of a European 
struggle in America, extending over more than three 
quarters of a century. Ultimately it failed, but not 
until almost every white man had been driven from 
the Ohio Valley, and 2,000 men on the western 
frontier had lost their lives. 

To this uprising and its influence on the Six 
Nations was due Johnson’s German Flatts confer¬ 
ence of September, 1763, to which came two hun¬ 
dred and seventy Indians from the Susquehanna 
villages. The Indians said they desired to renew the 
covenant chain, and declared that all their brethren 
on the river, as far down as Owego, were “ friends 
and determined to remain so.” Hostile Indians 
reached Oghwaga in the same season, their purpose 
being either to win over the Six Nations to Pontiac 
or to renew the warfare on the English settlements. 
By some of them Isaac Hollister, a Connecticut 
settler, had been taken prisoner in the Wyoming 
Valley and carried “up the Susquehanna about one 
hundred and fifty miles.” 

73 







THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


So serious became the danger, that Johnson, in 
February, 1764, sent out an expedition under orders 
to capture all hostile Indians found on the river. 
It comprised two hundred men, mostly Indians. 
Near “the main branch of the Susquehanna” the 
enemy were heard from, as encamped a short dis¬ 
tance away, and already on the road against the 
settlements. At daybreak Johnson’s men rushed 
upon the Delawares, took them by surprise, and 
made prisoners of the whole party, forty-one in 
number, including their chief, Captain Bull, a son 
of Teedyuscung,* “ who had discovered great in¬ 
veteracy against the English and led several par¬ 
ties against them during the present Indian war.” 
When the expedition set out, Johnson had offered 
rewards of $50 for the heads of two Delawares 
named Long Coat and Onaperaquedra. The whole 
party of captives were taken over to the Mohawk 
Valley, and thirteen of them were sent to New 
York, where they were lodged in the common jail, 
after having been much observed by the people of 
that city, who are described as admiring their sullen 
and ferocious countenances. 

In March, shortly after this success, another ex¬ 
pedition, in which a share was taken by Joseph 
Brant, was sent down. Brant had already seen ser¬ 
vice in war. Besides taking part in the siege of 
Fort Niagara in 1759, where he conducted himself, 
according to Stone,j* with “ distinguished bravery,” 

* Teedyuscung was a noted chief of the Delaware nation. Although he 
had been converted by the Moravians, he could never resist the tempta¬ 
tion to follow other Indians on the war-path, his sympathies being with 
the French. Having incurred the hostility of the Six Nations in 1763, 
a party of their warriors set fire to his house and caused him to perish in 
its flames. 

t William L. Stone was born in Ulster County in 1792, and died at 
Saratoga in 1844. At the age of seventeen he was a journeyman printer 

74 



PONTIAC’S WAR AND AFTER IT 


he had been in the battle of Lake George. He was 
then a boy of thirteen, and, according to his own 
account, “ was seized with such a tremor when the 
firing began that he was obliged to take hold of a 
small sapling to steady himself.” 

This expedition to the Susquehanna comprised 
one hundred and forty Indians and a few whites, 
the latter having for leader Captain Andrew Mon¬ 
tour, a half-breed interpreter and frontiersman, 
whose mother was the more celebrated interpreter. 
Madam Montour. It reached Oghwaga before the 
close of March, and on April ist departed down the 
river, first calling at Kanhaughton, a town which 
had been abandoned, and containing thirty-six good 
houses of squared logs and stone chimneys. It 
was now burned. Montour proceeded up “ the 
Cayuga branch ” and destroyed another town of 
twenty houses, besides four smaller villages. He 
afterward burned Kanestio, which had sixty houses, 
and from which he took away horses, corn, and 
implements. 

When Captain Montour returned to the Mo¬ 
hawk Valley, with report of his success, Johnson 
decided to send his son Sir John to Oghwaga with 
a body of Indians and a small select corps of whites, 
“ to take advantage of the consternation the enemy 
were thrown into.” Sir John followed the river 

in the office of the Cooperstown Federalist, and in 1813 editor of the 
Herkimer American, where he had Thurlow Weed for a printer. He 
became in 1821 an owner of the New York Commercial Advertiser, of 
which he was thenceforth editor until his death, becoming in 1840 one 
of the many editors whom Fenimore Cooper sued for libel. Stone’s 
Life of Brant was published in 1838 and went through many editions, 
one of which appeared in Cooperstown from the Phinney house, and the 
eighth being issued in Buffalo. In 1865 his son brought out a new edi¬ 
tion with an index. Stone wrote other books, but none in repute equal 
to this, the noblest tribute ever paid by a white man to an Indian’s 
memory. 


75 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


route, and his force had been fitted out with some 
liberality of display in order to impress the Indians. 
He made a few prisoners and then returned. 

Tranquillity having been restored, two mission¬ 
aries from Lebanon were allowed to leave the Mo¬ 
hawk Valley late in the summer. At Oghwaga they 
gathered a church of fourteen members. They were 
graduates of Yale, one of them C. J. Smith, the other 
Theophilus Chamberlain. On leaving Lebanon 
they had originally been accompanied by eight Ind¬ 
ian boys, one of them Brant, who for a time acted 
as interpreter for Smith ; but Pontiac’s War, as we 
have seen, soon took Brant into the field, where, 
says Dr. Wheelock, he “ behaved so much like a 
Christian and a soldier that he gained great esteem.” 
When that war closed, Brant’s house at Canajoha- 
rie was described as an asylum for missionaries. 
The route to the stations was a direct one by way 
of Bowman’s Creek and Cherry Valley. 

With the coming of winter, famine was threat¬ 
ened in the valley. The food-supply had been ex¬ 
hausted in consequence of the war, and the mission 
was removed to Otsego Lake. Here was opened a 
small school, into which was put as teacher a Mo¬ 
hawk boy, educated at Lebanon, named Moses. 
One of the missionaries, the Rev. C. J. Smith, sent 
to Mr. Wheelock the following report of the 
school: 

I am every day diverted and pleased with a view of 
Moses and his school, as I can sit in my study and see him 
and all his scholars at any time, the school-house being noth¬ 
ing but an open barrack. And I am much pleased to see 
eight or ten and sometimes more scholars sitting under their 
bark table, some reading, some writing and others a study¬ 
ing, and all engaged to appearances with as much serious- 

?6 




PONTIAC’S WAR AND AFTER IT 


ness and attention as you will see in almost any worshipping 
assembly and Moses at the head of them with the gravity 
of fifty or three score. I expect this school will be much 
larger when it comes to Oghwaga, as there are but a few 
here, and many of these that are, on account of the pres¬ 
ent scarcity, are obliged to employ their children. The 
school at Oghwaga will doubtless be large enough for Jo¬ 
seph * and Moses both. 

While the school remained at the lake, one of the 
missionaries returned to Lebanon to obtain a car¬ 
penter to build houses and make agricultural im¬ 
plements. Two of the Indians, Isaac Dakazenen- 
sere and Adam Wavonwanoren, in a letter dated at 
the lake in the summer of 1765, asked Mr. Whee- 
lock to “ assist us in setting up husbandry by 
sending a number of white people to live with us 
who, when they come, should build us mills, teach 
us husbandry, and furnish us with tools for hus¬ 
bandry.” But, they added, “ we should have you 
understand, brothers, that we have no thoughts of 
selling our lands to any that come to live among 
us. For if we should sell a little land to-day, by 
and by they would want to buy a little more and so 
our land would go by inches till we should have 
none to live upon.” A letter dated in September 
of the same year found these Indians back in 
Oghwaga. 

Besides this school, others had been established 
among the Oneidas. Mr. Wheelock at Lebanon 
still had eighteen boys. Five Mohawks whom he 
had educated were teachers in various parts in Cen- 

* Joseph Woolley, an “ eminently pious ” young Delaware Indian, who 
had been educated at Lebanon and duly licensed to preach. While mak¬ 
ing one of his trips into the Susquehanna Valley, he fell ill at Cherry 
Valley and died. 


77 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


tral New York. In the Mohawk and Oneida coun¬ 
tries one hundred and twenty-seven children were 
then attending schools, and another school was soon 
to be started with twenty. 

Best known among the missionaries on whom 
Mr. Wheelock had influence is Samuel Kirkland, 
forty years of whose life were devoted to the work. 
As Dr. Wheelock afterward became the founder of 
Dartmouth, so was it Kirkland who founded Ham¬ 
ilton College. Scarcely more than a dozen miles 
southeast of Lebanon lies Norwich, where Kirk¬ 
land, in 1741, was born. He was a student at Le¬ 
banon in his youth, and was there ordained for the 
ministry. During the first years of his life in the 
wilderness he had for housekeepers two Indians, 
once companions of Samson Occum, named David 
and Hannah Fowler, who had been educated at 
Lebanon. In the neighboring town of Windham, 
Kirkland finally married Dr. Wheelock’s niece. 

In the year 1764 Mr. Kirkland, who had already 
been to Oneida with Brant in 1761, and who had 
learned the Mohawk tongue from Brant, began his 
labors among the New York Indians. Joseph 
Woolley accompanied him. They passed down the 
Susquehanna in November to Oghwaga, where Jo¬ 
seph was established as a school-master. Mr. Kirk¬ 
land then returned to the Mohawk Valley, whence 
he set out for the wilderness west of him, the scene of 
his life-long labor, without a penny in his pockets, 
and entirely dependent on the natives. Within a few 
months famine was threatened, and he was obliged 
to return to Oghwaga to escape starvation. He 
was forced to live for several days on “ white oak 
acorns fried in bear’s grease.” At a later period he 
complained that he had lived “ more like a dog than 

78 



PONTIAC’S WAR AND AFTER IT 


a Christian minister.” Many a time he would have 
begged on his knees for a bone such as he had often 
thrown to a dog. For ten months he had not slept 
free from pain in his bones, with a pain in his chest. 
“ The devil,” he said, “ has tried for three years to 
starve me to death.” 

A son of Mr. Wheelock’s, named Ralph, who 
spent two years in a tour among the missionaries, 
came down to Oghwaga about 1768, and afterward 
passed considerable time with Mr. Kirkland among 
the Oneidas farther north. Ralph Wheelock does 
not appear to have possessed much knowledge of 
human nature. During this time his relations with 
Mr. Kirkland ceased to be cordial. Joseph Brant 
used to delight in telling a story of his school-days 
at Lebanon, in which Ralph did not figure as pre¬ 
cisely the hero. With Brant in the school was an 
Indian boy named William Johnson, a natural son 
of Sir William. Ralph Wheelock one day told 
William to saddle a horse for him. William refused 
to do it on the ground that he “ was not a menial, 
but a gentleman’s son.” “ Do you know what a 
gentleman is?” asked Ralph. “I do,” was the 
answer. “ A gentleman is a person who keeps race 
horses and drinks Madeira wine, and that is what 
neither you nor your father does—therefore saddle 
the horse yourself.” William was among those who 
were slain at the battle of Oriskany in 1777. 


79 


VII 


Last of the Indian Missions 

1769-1774 

T HE work at Oghwaga in 1769 was in charge 
of the Rev. Eleazer Moseley. He had 
been settled there about three years and was 
receiving a salary of $500 from the Boston Com¬ 
missioners. The Revs. Peter and Henry Avery 
came some time later. James Dean was the inter¬ 
preter in Moseley’s time, and in 1769 had been nine 
years in the country. In the Smith and Wells 
journal we have the following account of the meth¬ 
ods employed by Mr. Moseley in his Sunday work : 

June 4th [1769] Sunday. In the morning we attended 
Messrs. Moseley and Dean to divine service which was 
conducted with regularity and solemnity. They first sang 
a psalm, then read a portion of scripture, and after another 
psalm Moseley preached a sermon (in a chintz night gown) 
and the business was concluded by a third psalm. The 
congregation consisted of near one hundred Indians, men 
women and children, including the chief of the Tuscarora 
town three miles below, with some of his people and they 
all behaved with exemplary devotion. The Indian priest 
named Isaac sat in the pulpit and the Indian clerk, Peter, 
below him. The clerk repeated the psalm in the Oneida 
language and the people joined in the melody with exactness 
and skill, the tunes very lively and agreeable. The ser¬ 
mon, delivered in English, was repeated in Indian by Dean, 
sentence by sentence. The men sat on benches on one 
side of the house and the women on the other. Before a 
meeting a horn is sounded three several times to give notice. 

80 







LAST OF THE INDIAN MISSIONS 


In the afternoon we attended the service again. This 
was performed by the Indian priest in the Oneida language. 
He began by a prayer; then they sang a psalm, the tune 
whereof was long, with many undulations, then a prayer 
and a second psalm, followed by an exhortation, repeating 
part of what Moseley had said in the morning with his own 
comments upon it and reading sometimes out of a book, 
here being several books in the Indian language. He fin¬ 
ished the service with a benediction. He and his clerk 
were dressed in black coats. Isaac is the chief here in re¬ 
ligious affairs, and his brother, a stout fat man, in civil, like 
Moses and Aaron. This last fell asleep while his brother 
was preaching, but assisted in singing with a loud and hoarse 
voice. These brothers and other chiefs came to visit us 
very kindly. 

An incident, at Oghwaga, of the year 1770 was the 
killing of a young Tuscarora by Thomas King, an 
Indian. Greatly depressed by his own act, King 
decided to submit humbly to the will of the Tusca- 
rora’s friends, but the matter was referred to Sir 
William Johnson, an old sachem going on a special 
mission to the baronet. By this year many Mo¬ 
hawks and Oneidas were able to read and write, and 
frequently acted as lay readers at church services, us¬ 
ing the liturgy as well as the Presbyterian service, and 
making religious addresses. 

In 1771 a graduate of Harvard, named Aaron 
Crosby, arrived and reported that there were “ 290 
souls of them who desire assistance.” The Ogh¬ 
waga houses were superior to those used by many 
white men on the frontier. Some of the Indians he 
found to be good farmers. In 1774 Mr. Crosby 
became involved in an embarrassing dispute. As a 
Congregationalist, he had declined to use the Church 
of England service, which the Mohawks naturally 

81 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


preferred, having learned to use it at their Fort 
Hunter home. During the dispute, a Mohawk Ind' 
ian deliberately rose in meeting and proceeded to 
read the English service in spite of Mr. Crosby. 
Mr. Crosby had further trouble because he refused 
to baptize Indian children whose parents were im¬ 
moral, and who could give no guarantee that the 
children would be properly guided. 

To return to Dr. Wheelock; it was probably 
the final letter from Johnson opposing immigration 
of whites that in the main repressed his zeal, and he 
saw, moreover, as time went on, that if the boys 
whom he educated at Lebanon were to be allowed 
to return home to places where no white men were 
settled around them, they would inevitably relapse 
into their former state of barbarism. Seeing these 
things, he was probably all the more willing to de¬ 
part from Lebanon when tracts of land had been 
offered in New Hampshire if the school would re¬ 
move to the place where now has grown up Dart¬ 
mouth College. Thus this school at Lebanon was 
the germ from which was developed the alma mater 
of Daniel Webster. 

Mr. Wheelock afterward wrote concerning his suc¬ 
cess at Lebanon that he had educated about forty 
Indians to become “ good readers and writers and 
even sufficiently master of English grammar, arith¬ 
metic and a number of them considerably advanced 
in knowledge of Greek and Latin and one of them 
carried through college.” But in the same report 
he declared that these good results almost went to 
naught after the boys had returned to their former 
associations. “ The current,” he said, “ is too strong. 
Of all the number before mentioned I do not hear 
of more than one-half who have preserved their 



LAST OF THE INDIAN MISSIONS 


characters unstained.” He added that “ some who 
on account of their parts and learning bid the fairest 
for usefulness, are sunk down as low, savage and 
brutish in manner of living as they were in before 
any endeavours were used to raise them up.” Schools 
started in the Indian villages usually did well “ un¬ 
til broken up by a hunting tour or some public con¬ 
gress.” He was further of opinion that the time 
for doing anything effective for the Six Nations was 
probably past; they appeared to be dying rapidly 
in a quick consumption, “ wasting like a morning 
dew.” It is well known that the Mohawk nation 
in those years became reduced to small numbers 
compared with what they had been a few years be¬ 
fore. They declined much more rapidly than any 
other members of the Iroquois League.* 

Late evidence of the work done by these mission¬ 
aries was obtained in 1843 by Mr. Lothrup, Kirk¬ 
land’s biographer. Visiting some Oneidas in Wis¬ 
consin, he asked two aged women to translate for 
him certain Indian letters. While the women were 
eagerly examining them, he observed them to be¬ 
come suddenly affected as they read the signature of 
Honeyost. They explained that Honeyost was their 
father, and begged to be allowed to keep one of the 
letters. The request was granted, and with delight 
in their faces the women exclaimed: “ How beautiful, 
how wonderful, is it not ? For forty years our father 
has slept in his grave and here we have his very 
thoughts before us. He speaks now through this.” 

* Dr. Wheelock’s complete disinterestedness in his Indian work has 
been called into question. It may at least be said that in the report giv¬ 
ing the disposition made of the funds raised in England the compen¬ 
sation he is shown to have received was large enough for the times. He 
seems to have been well paid for doing very creditable work. But that 
can scarcely he held up as a reproach. 

83 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Honeyost, or Honayuwus, was a chief who lived 
more than ninety-four years. He was the author 
of a celebrated bit of Indian eloquence inspired by 
the close of the Revolution : “ The Great Spirit 
spoke to the whirlwind and it was still.” 


84 




PART III 


Land Titles and Pioneers 

i 679- i 774 







I 


William Penn and Sir William 



1679-1766 


I N the future of North America and the history 
of Anglo-Saxon civilization the year 1664 was 
important. Men of English race, under their 
own flag, in that year began to exert an influence 
on Manhattan Island. Ten years later they were 
confirmed in possession of that territory, now occu¬ 
pied by one of the earth’s largest and most opulent 
communities. The two dates form part of a great 
and memorable chain, starting in 1588, when was 
overthrown the Spanish Armada, and ending in 
1 759, when the English conquered at Quebec. 
The whole series embraces successive events by 
which the North American continent was wrested 
by Englishmen from Spanish, Dutch, and French 
domination. Considering all that followed from 
the peaceful capitulation of New Amsterdam in 
1664, it was one of the most far-reaching events in 
American history. 

Fifteen years after the capitulation, the English 
in New York obtained from the Indians a promise 
of the valuable domain of the Susquehanna. As 
affecting any actual title the promise appears to 
have had little value, but it is of interest to know 
that thus early had the valley attracted the attention 
of Englishmen. By this act the English surpassed 
in enterprise anything the Dutch had done in forty 


87 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


years of residence. The Dutch had shown merely 
the interest of fur traders, seeking a route of travel. 
The English wanted not only a route but land. 

James Graham and William Haig, agents of 
William Penn, arrived in Albany in 1683 with an 
offer from Penn to the Indians for the purchase of 
these lands. Penn’s purpose was by this method 
to divert toward Philadelphia the trade that went 
to Albany. His scheme showed foresight and the 
English were at once alarmed by it. They declared 
that if he bought the river it would “ tend to the 
utter ruin of the beaver trade as the Indians do 
themselves acknowledge.” Moreover, there “ hath 
not anything ever been moved or agitated from the 
first settling of these parts more prejudicial to his 
Royal Highness’s interests and the inhabitants of 
this government than this business of the Susque¬ 
hanna river. The French, it is true, have endeav¬ 
ored to take away our trade by piece-meal, but this 
will cut it off all at once.” In one year Penn, in 
fact, had received “ upwards of 200 packs of beav¬ 
ers,” and the trade promised to increase. If this 
continued, the New York Government could not 
maintain itself and Albany would be depopulated. 
Governor Dongan received word from London in 
reply to this report that “ we think you will do well 
to preserve your interests there as much as possible 
so that nothing more go away to Mr. Penn or either 
New Jerseys.” 

Three weeks after the visit a conference with the 
Indians was held at Albany, and a formal instrument 
was signed and sealed conveying to the English the 
Susquehanna territory above Wyalusing,* and in 

* It is obvious that by the Susquehanna was then meant not only the 
river as we know it, but other streams that flow into it above Wyalusing, 

88 



PENN AND SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON 

1684 an offensive and defensive alliance against the 
French was concluded at which the Onondaga and 
Cayuga sachems made the following statement: 

We have given the Susquehanna river which we won 
with the sword, to this government and desire that it may 
be a branch of the great Tree * which grows in this place, 
the top of which reaches the sun, under whose branches we 
shall shelter ourselves from the French and any other peo¬ 
ple, and our fire burn in your houses and your fire burn 
with us and we desire that it always may be so and will 
not that any of your Penn’s people shall settle upon the 
Susquehanna river, for all our folks or soldiers are like 
wolves in the woods as you sachem of Virginia know, we 
having no other land to leave to our children. We desire 
of you therefore that you would bear witness of what we 
now do, and that we now confirm what we have done be¬ 
fore. 

You great man of Virginia, we let you know that 
great Penn did speak to us here in Corlear’s House by his 
agents and desired to buy the Susquehanna river, but we 
would not harken to him for we had fastened it to this gov¬ 
ernment. 

This “ great man of Virginia ” was the Governor- 
General, Lord Howard of Effingham, who had gone 
to Albany to remonstrate against invasions of his 
territory by the Indians. He told them it was now 
about seven years since they came unprovoked to 
Virginia and “committed such murders and rob¬ 
beries,” and that they had invaded that province 

including, besides the Unadilla and Charlotte, the Chenango and Che¬ 
mung. One of the official papers of the times says, “All the nations 
with whom Albany hath trade live at the head of the Susquehanna river. ” 
Again the river was described as “ situated in the middle of the Senaca 
country.” It was the Cayuga and Onondaga sachems who now made a 
conveyance to the English. They said the river “ belongs to us alone, 
the other nations having nothing to do with it.” 

* The Tree of Peace. 


89 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 

every year since in a warlike manner. He proposed 
a “ new chain ” and one “ that may be more strong 
and lasting even to the world’s end.” The Indians 
were pleased by this conciliatory spirit and the next 
day planted the tree of peace. 

When the delegates from the several nations re¬ 
ferred to the King of England, then Charles II., they 
called him “ your friend that lives over the great 
lake.” They asked to have him informed that they 
were “ a free people uniting ourselves to what 
sachem we please,” which was probably the earliest 
message to Great Britain from these shores showing 
a spirit of independence. 

The Indians did not regard this treaty as a deed 
conveying all their right and title. The reference 
to the valley as the only land they had to leave 
their children, implies that they believed the land 
still remained in some sense their own. They were 
merely placing themselves and their lands “ under 
the protection of the King,” and hoped thus to 
“ shelter themselves from the French.” Sixty years 
later, at a conference in Albany, the Indians declared 
that their fathers had made the Susquehanna con¬ 
veyance by advice of the English as a way to secure 
self-protection and to prevent Penn and others from 
imposing on them. They had understood that 
they “ might always have the land when we should 
want it.” The English had told them they “ would 
keep it for our use,” and “ accordingly we trusted 
them.” 

That the English, on the other hand, believed 
they had secured ownership is obvious from Don- 
gan’s report of 1687, when he said he had been 
obliged “ to give a great deal to the Indians for the 
Susquehanna river.” Whatever the sum given, 

90 




PENN AND SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON 

it probably was not large. Certain other convey¬ 
ances of land secured from the Indians in 1683 
named as considerations “ half a piece of Duffels, 
two blankets, two guns, three kettles, four coats, 
fifty pounds of lead and five and twenty pounds of 
powder.” 

Dongan, in announcing the purchase to Penn, 
expressed a hope that “ you and I shall not fall 
out: I desire that we may join heartily together to 
advance the interests of my master and your good 
friend.” But Penn never forgave Dongan for 
thwarting his ambition, and finally had his revenge. 
At the court of James II., where he was high in 
favor, Penn fostered prejudices against Dongan, and 
in 1686 Dongan heard that he was to be recalled. 
In distress he wrote directly to the King : “ Mr. 
Penn has written that I was to be recalled home 
and I do not doubt that he would do all he can to 
effect it, having no great kindness for me because 
I did not consent to his buying the Susquehanna 
river.” But this letter saved him not. Dongan 
was recalled. Two years later James himself, in 
the revolution of 1688, realized what it was to be 
overtaken by misfortune. Nor was it long before 
misfortune came to Penn. Penn’s desire for the 
valley still existed as late as 1691, when an address 
to the King, William of Orange, from the Gov¬ 
ernor and Council of New York, contained these 
words : 

If Mr. Penn should attain his pretenses to the Susque¬ 
hanna river it will not only destroy the best branch of your 
Majesty’s revenue, but it will likewise depopulate your prov¬ 
ince, the inhabitants of Albany having only seated them¬ 
selves there and addicted their minds to the English lan¬ 
guage and the mysteries of the said trade with purpose to 

91 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


manage it, that if it should be diverted from that channel 
they must follow it, having no other way or art to get a 
livelihood. 

In the following year, by an order in Council, 
Penn was deprived of the Governorship of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, and new accusations were made of treasonable 
correspondence with James, who was now a king in 
exile. But the men of New York, thanks to Don- 
gan,* had forever secured the Susquehanna Valley. 
In 1711 we find them giving an order to the Ind¬ 
ians living on the river to send their fighting men 
to Albany to join an English expedition against the 
French in Canada. Thenceforth until the Revolu¬ 
tion the English often repeated this appeal and not 
in vain. 

Following the fur traders came actual settlers. 
Along the lower Mohawk white men had estab¬ 
lished homes soon after the Dutch came to New 
York, but in the main these were only trading 
posts, just as Albany itself originally was one. 
Schenectady was the most important, the place being 
actually settled somewhat later—about 1660. By 
1690 it had grown to be a town of eighty houses 
surrounded by a stockade. At midnight in Febru¬ 
ary of that year Frontenac burned all those houses 
and killed sixty-three persons. Royal grants of 
land further west along the Mohawk came later 
still. Even the English were slow to set value on 
the vast areas of fertile soil that lay uncultivated in 
the Western wilderness. 

Near Fort Hunter, John P. Maibae acquired a 

* Thomas Dongan’s services to the Province of New York have been 
most lastingly commemorated in that instrument called after him—the 
“Charter of Liberties and Privileges” of 1686, which remains a land¬ 
mark in the history of popular government in America. 

9 2 


PENN AND SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON 

patent in 1705, while in the same year was issued 
the great Oriskany patent on which Fort Stanwix 
was afterward to be built, and which remained for 
many years the extreme outpost of the white men’s 
landed possessions in the Province of New York; 
but the real “ thirst for land ” did not actually set in 
among the English until twenty or thirty years 
later, in the time of Governor Burnet, who with 
large foresight planted the trading post and fort at 
Oswego. To that period belong the patents issued 
in the Mohawk Valley to Lewis Morris, Robert 
Livingston, Rutgerd Bleeker, Abram Van Horn, and 
Frederick Morris, and the great Cosby’s Manor 
grant extending from German Flatts westward be¬ 
yond Utica, on both sides of the stream. 

When the Protestant missionaries took up their 
work, the upper Susquehanna had become familiar 
ground to many white men, a few of whom had 
secured titles to land. It is not surprising to 
find that the first men who became owners of 
land were traders, or men interested in the trade, 
or that they still more frequently were men whose 
official places enabled them to secure grants advan¬ 
tageously. 

John Lindesay, who obtained the Cherry Valley 
patent in 1738, and founded the settlement at that 
place in the following year under the name of Linde- 
say’s Bush, had been Sheriff of Albany County, and 
in company with Philip Livingston, who lived in 
Albany and was a commissioner of Indian affairs, 
for more than twenty-five years, had obtained in 
1730 a patent on the Mohawk near Little Falls. 
Lindesay secured the Cherry Valley tract while 
George Clarke was Lieutenant-Governor. Clarke, 
who was interested in the tract, came to America 

93 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


from England in Queen Anne’s time, in order to 
act as Secretary to the Province, and in 1736 had 
become Lieutenant-Governor, an office he held for 
seven years. By marriage he was connected with 
the family of Hyde, to which belonged the earls of 
Clarendon, and from which came the name of the 
family home in Otsego—Hyde Hall.* 

Arendt Bradt, of Schenectady, who obtained a 
small patent on Schenevus Creek in 1738, another 
on the same creek in 1740, and a third at the 
mouth of that creek in 1740, was a commissioner of 
Indian affairs, serving with Philip Livingston, and 
with Livingston owned a patent on the Mohawk. 
Nearly all these Indian commissioners were engaged 
in the fur trade. Although they received no sala¬ 
ries as commissioners, the office was one of profit 
and consequence. What was known as Petrie’s 
Purchase, extending north from Otsego Lake, was 
secured in 1740, John J. Petrie being a resident 
of German Flatts, where at one time he was a mag¬ 
istrate. John Groesbeck, who was an officer of the 
Court of Chancery, obtained in 1741 the patent 
lying northeast of the lake, in which neighborhood 
lay the George Clarke lands. 

Voleert Oothout in 1741 secured a patent to the 
bottom-lands of Cherry Valley Creek, extending 
from Lindesay’s patent down to and across the 
Susquehanna. David Schuyler, whose family was 
prominent in Indian affairs, and who had close re¬ 
lations with John Lindesay, in 1755 obtained his 
large patent running west from Richfield. From 

* After the Revolution another George Clarke, heir to these lands as 
Clarke’s grandson, came over and established himself permanently on 
the lake. Of the semi-baronial life which he led there, interesting 
glimpses are given by Levi Beardsley, who knew Clarke well and had 
often partaken of his hospitality. 


94 







PENN AND SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON 

him the lake of Richfield derived the name which 
for many years it bore. 

Most interesting of all these early grants is the 
one made to William Johnson in 1751. Desiring 
to secure possession of the Susquehanna lands ex¬ 
tending from the mouth of the Charlotte to the 
Pennsylvania line, he, like others, found it necessary 
first to purchase them from the Indians. In May, 
1751, he petitioned for the lands after having cor¬ 
respondence with Gouldsborough Banyar, as to the 
form of petition. He applied for a tract extending 
one mile back from the river on each side and esti¬ 
mated to embrace 100,000 acres. 

In the same year a warrant was issued to Johnson 
and others—the petition had come from “ William 
Johnson and Co.”—to lay out these lands as far as 
the Pennsylvania line, a line which then had not 
been definitely fixed, and this gave rise to anxiety in 
Pennsylvania. In this year was held the Albany 
council at which Jonathan Edwards learned of the 
desire of the English to send missionaries into the 
valley. Johnson's interest in these lands and Haw¬ 
ley’s coming to Oghwaga have close connection. 
That Johnson purchased the lands from the Ind¬ 
ians is shown in a letter he addressed to “ the 
King’s most excellent Majesty in Council,” in 1766, 
saying the Six Nations had given him “ by deed a 
tract of land on the Susquehanna river within the 
said Province,” for which he “ had paid them a 
large sum of money.” 

Johnson was the earliest white man who by pur¬ 
chase acquired title to lands in the upper valley 
west of the Charlotte. He had first risen to office 
in 1745, when he was made a Justice of the Peace. 
Four years later he was appointed Sole Superintend- 

95 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


ent of Indian Affairs, and prepared at once to concil¬ 
iate the red men Along with wampum belts he 
sent them a request to attend the council of 1751. 
Clad in their own dress, he partook of their pastimes, 
put on their paint and feathers, and was adopted by 
the Mohawks as a chief. All previous councils 
were far outdone, and Johnson’s success perhaps 
marked a turning-point in the conflict with France. 
The council met on the same hill where now rises 
the imposing edifice reared by the Empire State for 
its Capitol, and here, under Johnson’s influence, was 
held that other and greater council, the Congress of 
I 754- . 

In his time Johnson became owner of a vast estate, 
acquired by methods of which modern notions of 
right and wrong perhaps would not wholly approve, 
but which in the eighteenth century were com¬ 
mon to men in office in America. Dr. Timothy 
Dwight says this wealth was due to “ a succession of 
ingenious and industrious devices,” and a story il¬ 
lustrative of them has been so widely printed as to 
be generally believed : 

Old King Hendrick of the Mohawks was at his house 
at the time Sir William received two or three rich suits of 
military clothes. The old King, a short time afterward, 
came to Sir William and said: “ I dream.” “ Well, what 
did you dream ? ” “ I dream you gave me one suit of 

clothes.” “ Well, I suppose you must have it,” and ac¬ 
cordingly he gave him one. Some time after, Sir William 
met Hendrick and said : “ I dreamed last night.” u Did 

you ? what did you dream ? ” “ I dreamed you gave 

me a tract of land,” describing it. After a pause Hen¬ 
drick said: “ I suppose you must have it,” and then rais¬ 
ing his finger significantly, added, “You must not dream 
again.” 


96 


PENN AND SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON 

Besides Dwight, others have accepted this story, 
among them Campbell (who credits it to Dwight), 
Schoolcraft, and Simms, who gave Henry F. Yates 
as his authority. Stone, in very positive terms, pro¬ 
nounced the story untrue, and his statement in¬ 
spires confidence. Johnson has not been the only 
victim of the anecdote. In language almost identi¬ 
cal it may be found in a biography of the younger 
Conrad Weiser, where Weiser takes Johnson’s place 
as the hero. Weiser’s biographer is as positive as 
Johnson’s in his denial of its truth. 

A tradition exists in the Susquehanna Valley that 
the land referred to in the story was not in the Mo¬ 
hawk Valley, but in the Susquehanna, at the mouth 
of Otego Creek, and it is well known that some of 
the early deeds now on record at Cooperstown use 
the words “ being a parcel of Sir William John¬ 
son’s dreamland tract.” Johnson’s own statement 
that he had paid “ a large sum of money ” for his 
Susquehanna tract, the warrant issued to him in 
1751 and Stone’s positive denial must, however, be 
remembered. As for the early Otsego deeds, they 
could have done little more than continue a tradition 
which, at the time the earliest deeds at Cooperstown 
were drawn, was forty years old. King Hendrick, 
moreover, was of the Mohawks and that nation is 
not known to have claimed any lands as far west as 
Otego Creek. Some importance must also be given 
to a letter written by Johnson to the Lords of Trade 
in 1764, in which he says: 

The friendship which several of the Indian nations 
professed for me induced them at different periods many 
years ago to give me deeds of several large tracts, signed in 
public meetings of the whole, for which as they always ex- 

97 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


pect a return I at times paid them large sums, more than 
they received from many strangers, and might have pro¬ 
cured patents for such tracts and settled or disposed of 
them to great advantage a long time since, but for my un¬ 
willingness to be engaged in lands from the nature of my 
employment. 


98 


II 


The Fort Stanwix Deed, 
and 

Patents that Followed It 

1768-1770 

L AST of the great acts of Sir William John¬ 
son’s life was the negotiation of the treaty of 
Fort Stanwix in 1768. By the terms of this 
treaty a vast territory south and east of the Ohio, 
Susquehanna, and Unadilla rivers was first opened 
to settlement. After Pontiac’s War, discontent had 
arisen among the Indians from many causes. For 
one thing, they disliked the white man’s inordinate 
“ thirst for land,” and a council was called, not only 
to renew the ancient covenant chain between the 
Indians and the English, but to establish a scientific 
frontier. 

In preparation for this council some twenty large 
batteaux laden with presents best suited to propitiate 
the Indians had been conveyed to Fort Stanwix.* 
From his agent at Albany Sir William ordered 
sixty barrels of flour, fifty barrels of pork, six bar¬ 
rels of rice, and seventy barrels of other provisions. 
When the Congress opened, 3,200 Indians were 
present, “each of whom,” wrote Johnson, “con¬ 
sumes daily more than two ordinary men amongst 

•The site of Fort Stanwix is now Rome, Oneida County. D. E. 
Wager says it was "the largest and strongest fort ever erected in the 
Province of New York, except Crown Point and Ticonderoga.” 

LofC. 99 






THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


us, and would be extremely dissatisfied if stinted 
when convened for business.” After Sir William 
had told them the King was resolved to terminate 
the grievances from which they suffered for want of 
a boundary, and that the King had ordered presents 
proportionate to the nature and extent of the inter¬ 
ests involved, the Indians retired, and for several 
days were in private council. 

The full report of these proceedings shows the 
sagacity and firmness with which Sir William carried 
his points. When, finally, the deed was executed, 
it conveyed to the English a vast territory out of 
which States have since been made. On that deed 
rests the title by purchase from the Indians, not only 
to large parts of New York but of Kentucky, West 
Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The deed bears date 
of November 5, 1768. Among those who wit¬ 
nessed its execution were Benjamin Franklin and 
William Franklin, his natural son, at that time Gov¬ 
ernor of New Jersey. It transferred the land with 
“ all the hereditaments and appurtenances to the 
same belonging, or appurtaining, in the fullest and 
most ample manner,” and all right, title, or interest, 
“ either in law or equity of each and every one of 
us ” unto “ our said Sovereign Lord King George 
III., his heirs and successors to and for his and 
their own proper use and behoof forever.” 

The actual sum paid in money for this imperial 
territory was about $50,600. The money came to 
the Indians at a time when they needed it. The 
corn-crop for that year in great measure had failed. 
Richard Smith, who was at Oghwaga in the follow¬ 
ing summer, says “ they lived through the winter 
and spring on the money received at the treaty from 
the sale of their lands.” He reported them as 

100 


THE FORT STANWIX DEED 


“ continually passing up to the settlements to buy 
provisions and sometimes showed us money in their 
bosoms.” 

From a point on the Allegany River several miles 
above Pittsburg, this historic line of property ran in 
a northeasterly direction to the head of Towanda 
Creek, proceeding down that stream to the Susque¬ 
hanna. Thence it went northward along the river to 
Tioga Point, eastward to Owego,* and from this 
place crossed the country to the Delaware, reaching 
it at a point a few miles below Hancock. From 
here it went up the Delaware to a point “opposite 
to where Tianaderha falls into the Susquehanna,” 
which point is now Deposit. Thence the line went 
directly across the hills to the Unadilla, and up 
that stream “ to the west branch, to the head there¬ 
of.” The Indians declared that the deed had been 
executed “ to prevent those intrusions and encroach¬ 
ments of which we have so long and loudly com¬ 
plained and to put a stop to many fraudulent ad¬ 
vantages which have been so often taken of us in 
land affairs.” The Indians made certain reserva¬ 
tions that “ lands occupied by the Mohawks around 
their villages, as well as by any other nation affected 
by this our cession, may effectually remain to them 
and their posterity.” Out of this grew prolonged 
trouble. It had very marked influence in pro¬ 
ducing the discontent from which were precipitated 
the Border Wars of the Revolution. 

In the year following the treaty, a Government 
surveyor was sent into the country to run the line 
of division. His name was Simon Metcalf. He 
began at Deposit, and proceeded north to the Sus- 

* Ahwaga in the Onondaga dialect, and meaning where the valley 
widens. Written also Owegy. 


lOI 






THE FORT STANWIX DEED 


views, arrived. He wrote to the Minister that the 
sum paid “ was the most moderate that could have 
been offered for so valuable and extensive a cession.” 
He afterward proposed a method by which the Crown 
could be reimbursed for its outlay. It was that all 
grants of land be subject to a tax of $50 for each 
thousand acres. A million acres thus would yield 
the sum of 150,000. 

The original purpose of the Crown had been to 
continue the line “ northward from Owego.” After 
the treaty, Johnson explained that he had found it 
“extremely difficult to get the line so far to the 
westward from its vicinity to their own towns, and 
indeed the whole of the line as it approached them 
cost me more pains and trouble than can be con¬ 
ceived.” In this statement we see reasons for the 
peculiar course of the line as it ran from Owego to the 
Delaware, and thence to the Unadilla River, instead 
of going “ northward from Owego.” Johnson’s 
course finally received the royal sanction, on De¬ 
cember 9, 1769, when Hillsborough wrote that it 
was the King’s pleasure “ that you should declare 
the royal ratification of the treaty of Fort Stanwix in 
such manner as has been usual on the like occasions.” 

No sooner had this treaty been negotiated than 
the business of getting patents began to thrive. In 
1769 was issued the John Butler patent, lying north 
of the Butternut Creek and reaching westward to 
the Unadilla River. John Butler was a deputy un¬ 
der Johnson, and afterward became notorious as 
the Tory Colonel who followed Guy Johnson to 
Canada, and then returned with his son Walter to 
write his history in the blood of many innocent 
persons. In the same year George Croghan got 
his patent running west from Otsego Lake. These 

103 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


lands were given to Croghan through an understand¬ 
ing with the Indians, who desired thus to compen¬ 
sate him for lands he had purchased of them in 
Pennsylvania, and which, by the terms of the treaty, 
he would now lose. Croghan got 100,000 acres in 
October, 1768, the patent being issued in the fol¬ 
lowing year. He also received 18,000 acres near 
Cherry Valley, which eventually passed to his daugh¬ 
ter, the wife of Augustine Prevost. Other lands 
Croghan sold to Joseph Wharton. 

Croghan took steps to settle the tract on the 
lake. In the course of his enterprise he mortgaged 
the lands, and eventually lost them through fore¬ 
closure. William Cooper, in the interest of the 
mortgagees, after the Revolution, went to the lake 
to view the lands, and soon became a settler and the 
founder of Cooperstown. There in the wilderness 
his son, the future novelist, grew up from infancy 
and gained that knowledge of frontier life and 
Indian character of which he has given the truest 
and most lasting pictures in our literature. Had 
Croghan succeeded in his enterprise the world prob¬ 
ably never would have heard of “ Leather Stocking.” 

From the same year dates the Morris patent, a 
part of which lies in the town of Unadilla. It was 
granted to Staats Long Morris, General Jacob Mor¬ 
ris’s uncle, and a brother of Lewis Morris, one of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence. Staats 
Long Morris was then an officer in the British army, 
and had served in India against the French at the 
siege of Pondicherry. Before settling this patent 
he had married the Dowager Duchess of Gordon. 
In 1797 he became Governor of Quebec. 

In 1770 were issued the patents on the Unadilla 
River known as Peter Middleton’s and Clotworthy 

104 


THE FORT STANWIX DEED 


Upton’s, the Otego patent issued to Charles Reade, 
Thomas Wharton, and others, the one in the Char¬ 
lotte Valley issued to Johnson, and the numerous 
patents on the south side of the Susquehanna issued 
to Augustine Prevost, John Harper, William Wal¬ 
ton, Laurence Kortright, and others. In issuing 
the Otego patent, the Crown reserved “ all white 
or other sorts of pine trees fit for masts of the 
growth of twenty four inches’ diameter and upwards 
at ten inches from the earth for masts, for the royal 
navy of us, our heirs and successors.” It was re¬ 
quired that one family should settle on each 1,000 
acres within three years, and cultivate three acres for 
every fifty acres capable of cultivation. Should the 
trees fit for masts be cut without license, the titles 
were to be forfeited. In this patent were 69,000 
acres. 



105 


Ill 


The Patent Called Wallace’s 

1770 

B Y the terms of the Fort Stanwix deed, that 
portion of Sir William Johnson’s Susque¬ 
hanna domain which lay west of the mouth 
of the Unadilla had passed again into the hands of 
the Indians. To the remainder, being lands between 
the mouth of the Unadilla and the mouth of the 
Charlotte, a new patent in 1770 was granted to 
Alexander Wallace and many associates. An ac¬ 
count of this patent may be given in detail to illus¬ 
trate the circumstances in which so many patents on 
this frontier were in that period obtained. 

In the year of the Fort Stanwix deed two well- 
known merchants of New York were Hugh Wallace 
and a younger brother Alexander, both natives of 
Ireland. Hugh had been in the country as early 
as 1753, but Alexander came several years later. 
Each had married a daughter of Cornelius Low, 
and thus was connected with some of the most dis¬ 
tinguished families in the New York colony. The 
name of Low ranked among the best names in the 
aristocracy of that seaport town whose population 
was then under 20,000. For several years the 
brothers were prominently engaged in the Irish 
trade, their ships making voyages to Cork and 
Dublin. Hugh was the second president of the 
Chamber of Commerce. In 1769, the year following 
the deed, Hugh was chosen a member of the Provin¬ 
cial Council and continued to hold the office until 

106 





THE PATENT CALLED WALLACE’S 


1776. It was an office of distinction, but no salary, 
and one of the chief advantages derived from holding 
it was that it enabled the holder to secure for him¬ 
self, his family, and his friends, large grants of land. 

The Wallace patent comprised 28,000 acres, and 
in order to comply with the regulation limiting hold¬ 
ings, it was issued to twenty-eight persons, each to 
hold a twenty-eighth part.* Many of these men 
were prominent citizens of New York in the eigh¬ 
teenth century. Some were merchants like the Wal¬ 
laces themselves ; others were journalists, and others 
physicians. A sketch of the lives of several of them 
will show how they were intimately acquainted, if 
not associated, with a merchant and councillor like 
Hugh Wallace and a prominent official like Goulds- 
borough Banyar. 

Mr. Low had grown up in the office of Hay- 
man Levy, an eminent trader, who taught John 
Jacob Astor the fur business, and before that had 
started Mr. Low in business by selling him a hogs¬ 
head of rum with which to trade with Indians. 
Mr. Low, in his time, became a great local magnate, 
and the firm of Low & Wallace, of 216 Water 
Street, was widely known. Mr. Low became owner 
of extensive lands in Jefferson and Lewis counties, 
including the sites of Adams and Watertown, and 
after him was named Lowville. He was a mem¬ 
ber of the convention which adopted the Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States. 

* These persons were Alexander Wallace, John Kennedy, John 
Shaw, John Hamilton, Hamilton Young, Robert Ross Waddell, Robert 
Alexander, Smith Ramadge, Anthony Van Dam, Theodore Marston, 
David Mathews, Charles Ramadge, John Miller, William Park, John 
Moore, James Stewart, Nicholas Low, Francis Stephens, John Fair- 
holme, William Stepple, William Newton, Hugh Gaine, John Rice, 
James Leadbetter, Charles Morse, Peter Middleton, James Rivington, 
and Robert McAlpin. 

IO7 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Mr. Waddell also was a merchant, the junior 
partner in the large house of George Cunningham 
& Co., and its New York manager. Their business 
was Irish. After the war Mr. Waddell went into 
business on his own account. He was one of the 
founders of the St. Patrick Society and its secretary 
for nineteen years. He died in 1818. John Shaw 
was another New York merchant, and did business 
in Water Street. 

Two of the patentees, Rivington and Gaine, were 
journalists. Rivington was born in London in 1724, 
came to New York in 1761, and died there in 
1802. His place of business was in Wall Street. 
He began the publication of the New York Gazet¬ 
teer newspaper, and was such an ardent Tory in the 
Revolution that seventy-five horsemen, led by Cap¬ 
tain Isaac Sears, went down from Connecticut, entered 
his office, destroyed his press, and made bullets of his 
type. Later on he turned Whig, and in 1781 acted 
as a spy for Washington. Ashbel Green described 
him as tc the greatest sycophant imaginable ; very lit¬ 
tle under the influences of any principle but self 
interest, yet of the most courteous manners to all 
with whom he had intercourse.” 

Gaine was a native of Ireland and published a 
New York paper called the Mercury. He was at 
first a Whig and afterward became a Royalist. On 
petition he was allowed to remain in New York after 
the war, and conducted thenceforth a book-store. 
He died possessed of a large estate. 

Peter Middleton was one of the most eminent 
physicians of his time in this country, and a gradu¬ 
ate of the University of Edinburgh. He helped to 
make the first dissections ever undertaken in Amer¬ 
ica, was among the founders of a medical school 

108 



THE PATENT CALLED WALLACE’S 


afterward absorbed by Columbia College, and a 
vestryman of Trinity Church from 1792 until 1808. 
Another interesting name is that of David Mathews. 
He was Mayor of New York in 1776, and was ar¬ 
rested and imprisoned accused of participation in 
the plot to assassinate Washington. 

A survey of the Wallace patent was made in 1770 
by Alexander Colden. In the same year surveys 
were made all through this part of the State, includ¬ 
ing the Edmeston patent and the Peter Middleton 
and Upton patents, by Robert Picken. A second 
survey of the Wallace patent was made in 1774 by 
William Cockburn and John Wagram, and accord¬ 
ing to this many of the early sales to smaller pro¬ 
prietors were made even as late as the sale by Peter 
Betts of lands in Unadilla village to Stephen 
Benton in 1804. Not only were many surveys made 
in 1770, but many patents dated from that year. 
The white man was prompt enough to avail himself 
of his opportunities, and the royal Governor was 
quite ready to encourage the business because of the 
large fees. These fees and what we nowadays know 
as “ influence ” appear to have been about all that 
was then necessary to secure a vast and fertile do¬ 
main in the New York wilderness. 

Hugh and Alexander Wallace were Tories of an 
uncompromising type, Hugh naturally from the 
office which he held. In August, 1776, they were 
apprehended by orders from Washington, because 
they had declined to take the oath of allegiance to 
Congress. Hugh was sent into Connecticut in care 
of Governor Trumbull, and Alexander to a place 
on the Hudson River. Alexander petitioned the 
Congress, saying his “ private papers on the pre¬ 
servation of which the well being of his family prin- 

109 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


cipally depends, are buried in the earth on Long 
Island in a place unknown to any but your peti¬ 
tioner and now in prison in New York, and will 
soon perish unless redeemed from their present 
state.” His wife and eight small children on Long 
Island were “ utterly destitute of that necessary as¬ 
sistance which so numerous a family must unavoid¬ 
ably want.” They were obliged to quit the house 
that they had occupied, as the owner wanted it for 
himself, and thus the family would be without a 
home unless Wallace could return. Both he and 
Hugh were finally allowed to proceed to Long 
Island on parole, under an agreement not to take 
up arms against the colony. Here they remained 
while the war proceeded, and dispensed a generous 
hospitality. 

Three years later the New York Legislature passed 
an act by which a large number of persons were at¬ 
tainted of treason, their estates were to be confis¬ 
cated and they proscribed. If found on State soil 
they were to be seized and punished with death, 
“ without the benefit of clergy,” their crime being 
“ an adherence to the enemies of the State.” Hugh 
and Alexander Wallace were among the unfortunate 
persons thus named. Another was Sir John John¬ 
son, son and heir of Sir William. 

Except in the Susquehanna patent the name of 
Alexander Wallace is not encountered in Susque¬ 
hanna history. He and his brother having been 
attainted of treason, the lands, had they been theirs, 
would have been confiscated, as was done with the 
Johnson lands in the Charlotte Valley, which had 
been left by Sir William to his brother and sister, 
and titles to which for the settlers afterward came 
directly from the State. But the Wallaces by this 

i io 


THE PATENT CALLED WALLACE’S 


time had ceased to have any title to these lands. 
Protected as they were by the British in New York, 
they appear to have continued their partnership 
until the war closed. When the British evacuated 
New York in November, 1783, Hugh went with 
them, and probably Alexander. Hugh died in 
Waterford in 1788. 

It is probable that Alexander was never the actual 
owner of a patent that has carried his name to our 
times, and will carry it to remote generations of land- 
owners. It is much more obvious that Hugh was 
the real Wallace at first interested, and that another 
interested person, and eventually the sole one, was 
Gouldsborough Banyar. In some of the early road 
surveys the patent is called Banyar’s Patent. 

The history of many patents is curious in that 
the real owners frequently were not those to whom 
the patents were issued. Long before the Revolu¬ 
tion the greed for land had become so sharp that a 
limitation had been imposed as to the amount which 
any one person could hold: this limit was 1,000 acres. 
An easy way out of the difficulty, however, was 
found. Accommodating friends acted as fictitious 
owners, and promptly made over to the real persons 
in interest the titles granted in their names. Cer¬ 
tain facts point to this method in the case of the 
Wallace patent. It is known, for example, that in 
1772, and at other times before the Revolution, 
Hugh Wallace and Banyar sold lands from this 
patent to the Rev. William Johnston, who settled in 
Sidney, and lots 61 and 62, comprising 100 and 384 
acres respectively, to Robert McGinnis about the 
same time, and yet the name of neither appears in 
the list of those to whom the patent had been issued 
two years before. 


hi 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Banyar was of English birth, and had come to 
America about 1737. He soon rose to be a man 
of note in the province. In 1755 he was a registrar 
of the Colonial Court of Chancery, and in 1753, 
1756, and 1769 an officer of the Prerogative Court, 
which attended to the probate of wills and the 
granting of licenses of marriage. When Cadwallader 
Colden became acting Governor in 1769, he was 
Deputy Secretary of the Council, and when a riotous 
demonstration followed the arrival of the Stamp Act 
paper, his name appeared on a placard posted by 
Colden seeking to quiet the enraged people. 

When the war came on, Banyar retired from the 
city to a place on the Hudson River. He was a 
Tory in his sympathies, and possessed large landed 
interests. As early as 1754 he had applied for a 
tract of 1,000 acres in what is now Cobleskill. All 
through the State land papers runs evidence of an 
earth hunger on his part, that was appeased in many 
parts of Tryon County. He was advantageously 
situated to realize his ambition, holding the office 
he did. With the advent of war Banyar’s extensive 
holdings became a powerful incentive to discreet 
action. He escaped the fate of the Wallaces, but 
escaped narrowly. On January 15, 1776, his name 
appeared on a list of suspected persons who were to 
be arrested, and he was one of those from whom 
arms were taken. His home on the Hudson was 
at Red Bank, and later at Rhinebeck. 

It is related that while he lived at Rhinebeck a 
British officer arrived from New York City with a 
sealed letter asking his advice as to the best method 
of attacking Esopus. He received the letter, en¬ 
tertained the officer and his attendants handsomely, 
and sent them away with a sealed reply which con- 

112 


THE PATENT CALLED WALLACE’S 


tained this brief message : “ Mr. Banyar knows 

nothing.” This was an example of the prudence 
with which he bore himself throughout the conflict. 
When the war closed, he took up his home in Al¬ 
bany, and in Albany he continued to live until 
1 815, actively interested in internal improvements, 
and generously contributing to them. He died with¬ 
out children at the age of ninety-one. Worth, who 
knew him in Albany, as early as 1800, says of him : 

Among other curious objects that attracted my attention 
during the early part of my residence in Albany, was a blind 
old man led about the streets by a colored servant. It was 
Gouldsborough Banyar, a most intelligent, wealthy, and re¬ 
spectable old gentleman. He was the most perfect type of 
the Anglo-American then living. He was the last of a race 
(a class of men now totally extinct), a race born in Eng¬ 
land, grown rich in America, proud of their birth and 
prouder of their fortune. He was a royalist in feeling (at 
the outbreak of the war) and doubtless in principle—his 
feelings it is believed underwent no change: his principles 
in the course of time became temperately and I may add 
judiciously modified by his interests. He had while in his 
office of Secretary obtained from the Crown many large and 
valuable tracts of land. 

These lands were the source of his wealth. With the 
eye of intelligence sharpened by the peculiarity of his posi¬ 
tion he watched the course of events and like a skilful 
pilot steered between the extremes. He wisely kept a friend 
in either port and had always an anchor to windward. In 
short, he preserved his character from reproach on the other 
side of the water and his lands from confiscation on this. 
It is impossible, I think, to reflect a moment upon the posi¬ 
tion which Mr. Banyar occupied during the war of the Rev¬ 
olution, and the manner in which he sustained himself in 
it, without conceding to him a thorough knowledge of the 
world, great sagacity and great address. 

11 3 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


For a long period the Banyar lands in the Sus¬ 
quehanna Valley were leased on the redemption 
plan ; that is, for a lot of say one hundred and sixty 
acres, $24 rent was annually paid, with the privilege 
—in some cases at least—of purchase at $ 400. 
Older residents of Unadilla remembered a gentleman 
named Dexter who used to come out annually from 
Albany to collect the rents, and on Sundays was 
certain to be seen in St. Matthew’s Church. It was 
from Mr. Banyar that this church received the 
gift of a farm on the road to Sidney long known as 
the Church Farm. Some of the Banyar leased 
lands were not purchased until very recent times, and 
perhaps all have not yet been acquired in fee simple. 
By the terms of his will, the name of Gouldsborough 
Banyar must survive with ownership of the property, 
and thus there exists to-day an opulent gentleman 
of that name. 

When the student of titles in this valley reaches 
the period at which purchases were made by settlers, 
he encounters besides Banyar’s name, the names of 
other men who were well known as large land- 
owners in this State at that period, and who lived 
chiefly about Albany and in New York. Best 
known among such names is Livingston. In Sidney 
a large tract was owned by Peter van Brugh Liv¬ 
ingston. He died about 1792, and after that date 
we meet with John Livingston’s name. John Liv¬ 
ingston was one of the original stockholders of the 
Catskill turnpike. He sat in the Assembly in 1786 
from Albany County, in 1788, 1790, and 1801 from 
Columbia County, and for several terms was a 
senator. 

Another name associated with these lands is Van 
Vechten. Abraham van Vechten was an eminent 

114 


THE PATENT CALLED WALLACE’S 


lawyer in Albany, a graduate from the office of John 
Lansing. Having been the first lawyer admitted to 
practice, after the adoption of the Constitution, he 
was familiarly called the “father of the New York 
bar.” He was born in Catskill, educated in New 
York, and began to practise law at Johnstown, but 
soon removed to Albany, where he had much dis¬ 
tinction. He served in the Legislature, was Attor¬ 
ney-General, a member of the Constitutional Con¬ 
vention of 1821, and declined a seat on the Supreme 
Bench offered him by John Jay. He was born in 
1761 and died in 1837. 

John and Abram G. Lansing, other owners, be¬ 
longed to an ancient Albany family. John Lansing 
was an eminent lawyer, a native of Albany; was 
often a member of Assembly, twice Speaker of the 
Assembly, a member of Congress, a delegate with 
Alexander Hamilton and Robert Yates to the Phila¬ 
delphia convention that framed the Constitution of 
the United States, a justice of the State Supreme 
Court, Chief-Justice of the State, and Chancellor. 
He mysteriously disappeared in New York in 1829, 
and was supposed either to have been robbed and 
murdered or accidentally drowned. 


IV 


The First Settlers 

1720-1772 

I N the coming of the Scotch-Irish to the head¬ 
waters of the Susquehanna, the New York 
frontier received a new and vital addition 
to those human forces which preserved and ex¬ 
panded its patriotism during the Revolution. To 
the valley of the Mohawk and Schoharie men of 
this race had not yet come. Following the Dutch, 
who at Schenectady had planted the first considera¬ 
ble settlement beyond Albany, the Palatines, about 
1720-25, or thirty years after Schenectady was 
destroyed by Frontenac, had arrived in those val¬ 
leys—a hardy, industrious, stolid race, by whom 
wealth was easily wrested from the fertile soil that 
extended southward to Schoharie from Fort Hunter 
and which bordered the Mohawk for many miles 
around German Flatts. A few of the English left 
Manhattan Island and the Hudson Valley for the 
Mohawk, and to the Mohawk, long after the first 
Palatines, came others of German and Dutch origin, 
forsaking their earlier homes in the Hudson Valley. 
Following Sir William Johnson in the middle of 
the century also came a few Irishmen with many 
Scotch Highlanders of the Catholic faith. But 
these were mainly traders or officials and were sel¬ 
dom or never agriculturalists. These additions left 
the bulk of the Mohawk and Schoharie population 
still German and Dutch — perhaps three-fourths 
of it. 

116 





THE FIRST SETTLERS 


During the last years of the French War, the in¬ 
dustry of these people had been so productive that, 
between the mouth of East Canada Creek and Tribes 
Hill, nearly 500 dwellings had been erected, with 
excellent farm buildings and large areas of land in 
an excellent state of cultivation. When the Revo¬ 
lution began, the whole valley was populous enough 
to be divided into four districts for organization and 
defence, each with a committee of its own—the Mo¬ 
hawk, Canajoharie, Palatine, and German Flatts dis¬ 
tricts, the latter being the most westerly and having 
for its chief village a town of seventy houses. How 
thickly populated the valley had become may again 
be seen in the chain of forts which stood there in 
1779. Beginning with Fort Hunter and extending 
westward, there were in the order named, Fort John¬ 
son, Fort Harrison, Fort Hendrick, Fort Herki¬ 
mer, Fort Dayton, Fort Schuyler (on the site of 
Utica), Fort Stanwix, and Fort Bute, while, what 
was known as the Royal Block House, stood near 
the eastern end of Oneida Lake. 

From these three elements—Palatine, Scotch- 
Irish, and Dutch—came the men who bore the 
shock of war when the conflict with England began. 
It was they who became patriots almost to a man; 
it was the houses and crops of these which were 
burned; it was they who were murdered or made 
prisoners, they who took the field against the in¬ 
vader and died at Oriskany, Klock’s Field, and 
Johnstown. The ranks of the Tories, meanwhile, 
were recruited from the English, Irish, and Scotch 
Highlanders. By men of those races were organ¬ 
ized the forces which, with Brant and his Indians, 
effected the massacres of Cherry Valley and Wyo¬ 
ming ; burned Springfield, German Flatts, and Can- 

ll 7 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


ajoharie ; reconverted into a wilderness the upper 
Susquehanna; laid waste the Schoharie Valley and 
spread desolation through almost every settlement 
on the Mohawk west of Schenectady. 

Among these frontier communities the ones 
planted by the Scotch-Irish on the Susquehanna 
formed the extreme outpost of civilization in New 
York. Of all these regions theirs was the most 
sparsely settled; they were themselves the most re¬ 
mote from contact with other settlers, occupying as 
they did the high lands of a new water-shed ; it was 
upon them that the Indian and Tory raids in the 
Border Wars were first to fall, and it was their lands 
alone that became entirely depopulated—a state of 
annihilation to which no other part of the frontier 
was reduced. Who these men were and whence 
and how they came may therefore be set forth in 
detail. 

The Scotch-Irish comprise a people who have 
exerted wide influence in American history. In the 
seventeenth and early in the eighteenth century they 
were maintaining in the north of Ireland the stern 
faith of Calvin. Besides following the teachings 
of John Knox, they had a political faith devoted 
to freedom, as opposed to the oppression exercised 
by the English Crown. Unable to find peace at 
home, they at last concluded to emigrate to the New 
World. About 1720 the movement westward had 
, reached large proportions. Douglas Campbell says, 
“ ships enough could not be found to carry from 
Ulster to America the men who were unwilling to 
live except in the air of religious freedom.” This 
migration bears, at several points, an interesting 
resemblance to the great Palatine influx from 
which the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys, as we 

118 


THE FIRST SETTLERS 


have seen, had received their strongest tide of 
population. 

Mr. Campbell shows that the Scotch-Irish influx 
continued half a century. Entire districts were 
almost depopulated. Within a period of two years, 
some 30,000 crossed the Atlantic. Many were 
well-to-do farmers. Others had been bred in Scot¬ 
tish universities. As a class, they were the equal of 
any emigrants who in those times sailed out of 
English harbors. To that Scotch-Irish emigration 
America owed General Henry Knox, John Stark, 
Anthony Wayne, John Sullivan, and George, James, 
and DeWitt Clinton. From the same stock were 
descended Patrick Henry and Daniel Boone, and 
so were Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, Hugh 
McCulloch, and Horace Greeley. Of those who 
landed in Boston from five ships in August, 1710, 
the larger portion went to New Hampshire, and in 
their settlement revived the name of the Irish town 
of Londonderry, memorable to them for its siege. 
Others went to Worcester, and others to Maine. 

From the New Hampshire settlement came the 
men who built up Cherry Valley,* the first perma¬ 
nent settlement within the domain of Otsego 
County. John Lindesay having obtained in 1738 
his patent of 18,000 acres, came into the country 
at once with his wife, his father-in-law, Lieutenant 
Congreve, and a few servants. Lindesay had been 
Naval Officer of the Port of New York, as well as 

* Cherry Valley then formed part of Albany County, but from Albany 
in 1772 Tryon County was taken off and named in honor of the British 
Governor of New York, William Tryon, only to be called Montgomery 
County a few years later, after the patriot soldier who fell at Quebec. 
Tryon County, as formed in 1772, embraced a large territory that 
has since been divided into several counties—Otsego, Montgomery, 
Herkimer, Fulton, Hamilton, St. Lawrence, Lewis, Oswego, Jefferson, 
and parts of Delaware, Oneida, and Schoharie. 

I 19 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Sheriff of Albany County. During the first winter 
he suffered from want of food, but an Indian from 
Oghwaga relieved his wants by bringing food from 
the Mohawk Valley. Following him came a young 
clergyman named Samuel Dunlop, whose acquaint¬ 
ance Mr. Lindesay had made in New York City, 
and who in 1741 induced several Scotch-Irish fami¬ 
lies from Londonderry to emigrate to Mr. Linde- 
say’s patent. Among them were David Ramsey, 
William Galt, William Dickson, and James Camp¬ 
bell.* By these men were laid the foundations of 
the Cherry Valley settlement which was to play so 
conspicuous a part in the later history of the upper 
Susquehanna. 

It is believed that a log church was almost at 
once erected near the present Phelan house, and that 
Mr. Dunlop there opened a school. The local tra¬ 
dition is that he often taught his boys to scan Ho¬ 
mer and Virgil as they attended him while plough¬ 
ing in the fields. The settlement grew slowly. 
Ten years later only a few additional families—not 
more than five—had come in; but in 1754 an im¬ 
portant accession was obtained in the Harpers, who 
came from Windsor, Conn. The father of the 
Harpers had gone to Maine in 1720 with other 
Scotch-Irish, and thence, owing to trouble with the 
Indians, had removed to Massachusetts. Gould f 

*James Campbell, the ancestor of Judge W. W. Campbell, the author 
of the Annals, and of Douglas Campbell, was born at Londonderry, Ire¬ 
land, in 1690, and was a son of William Campbell, of Campbelltown, 
Argyleshire, Scotland. William Campbell, a cadet of the house of 
Auchenbreck, engaged in Monmouth’s rebellion, and escaped to Ireland, 
where he served as a lieutenant-colonel at the siege of Londonderry. 
James Campbell landed in Boston in 1728, and in 1735 removed to Lon¬ 
donderry, N. H., and thence to Cherry Valley. 

t Jay Gould, the celebrated New York millionnaire, wrote a History 
of Delaware County just before he became of age, which was an enter¬ 
prise supplementary to a map he had made of Delaware County. In 

120 


THE FIRST SETTLERS 


says they removed to Windsor in 1741. One of 
the boys was John, who, about 1760, went back to 
Connecticut to attend school at Lebanon, which was 
near Windsor, and here he enjoyed the acquaint¬ 
ance of an Indian boy whom he was afterward to 
meet on this frontier in quite different circumstances 
—Joseph Brant. 

It was not until after 1763 that Cherry Valley 
enjoyed any marked increase. With the English 
conquest of the country now achieved, new confi¬ 
dence inspired the men who wished to people the 
fertile lands beyond the Hudson. In 1769 forty 
or fifty families, mostly Scotch-Irish, were living in 
the settlement, while smaller colonies in the same 
neighborhood could count up as many more, a large 
proportion of the latter being Germans, who had 
come from Schoharie and the Mohawk. 

The settlers of this period who went beyond the 
head of the river found it necessary to employ certain 
boats which had long been used by traders and mis¬ 
sionaries. They were called “ battoes,” a corruption of 
the French batteaux, and originally had been adopt¬ 
ed as substitutes for the bark canoe, which was not 
strong enough to bear the weight of heavy mer¬ 
chandise. French traders had used them probably 
for a half century before they were employed by the 
Susquehanna pioneers. Those which English trad¬ 
ers used were mostly built at Schenectady, white 
pine boards being used. The bottoms were made 
flat to adapt them to shallow water, and at each end 

collecting his material he had valuable assistance from his friend S. 
B. Champion, of the Bloomville Mirror. In the spring of 1856 Mr. 
Gould had his manuscript ready for the printers and placed it in the 
hands of a Philadelphia house. A few weeks later the printing house 
was destroyed by fire and only a few proof-sheets of the book escaped 
destruction. At Roxbury he courageously rewrote the book and it was 
issued late in the same year. 


12 I 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


they were sharp and higher than in the centre. 
Their length was from twenty to twenty-five feet, 
and the sides from twenty inches to two feet high. 
In the centre they were three and a half feet wide. 
Of these boats much has been read by all who are 
familiar with narratives of pioneer life at that time. 
Civilization had no more important tool. 

Cooper, in his “Wyandotte,” brings a family down 
the river in one of these boats and up the Unadilla 
to a stream that answers to Butternut Creek in 
1765. He represents Captain Willoughby, with a 
force of mechanics and laborers, as following the 
Mohawk to Otsego Lake, from which the party 
went in boats to the mouth of the Unadilla, “which 
stream they ascended until they came to the small 
river that ran through the captain’s estate.” In the 
following spring the captain took his family out 
from Albany. He made visits to “ Edmeston, of 
Mount Edmeston,” and by the spring of 1775 the 
settlement numbered more than one hundred souls. 
The ensuing story relates to the arrival of seventy 
or eighty warriors, Mohawks and Onondagas, in 
the autumn of 1776, and the dispersion of the set¬ 
tlement to which, after the Revolution, the survivors 
returned. 

Fiction though all this is, it is a fairly accurate 
picture of those times, in so far as pertains to dates, 
locality, and events. We know that in 1765 Joa¬ 
chim Van Valkenberg, whose family had been in 
the Mohawk Valley forty years, settled at the mouth 
of Schenevus Creek, where for many years he sup¬ 
plied food and shelter to incoming pioneers. On 
the Unadilla River, settlements had been attempted 
even earlier, at least in the upper part of the valley, 
which was entered by crossing the hills from the 

122 


THE FIRST SETTLERS 


upper Mohawk. From the Oriskany patent in 
1724, one Squire Brown, whose first name has been 
lost, came with three or four families to occupy lands 
not far from the confluence of the two branches of the 
Unadilla, near where now is the village of Unadilla 
Forks. But in the following year these families 
were driven out by the Indians. 

How soon another attempt was made is uncer¬ 
tain, but we may assume that when missionary work 
had been well begun at Oghwaga and in Oneida, the 
way was opened to settlers. Soon after Colonel Ed- 
meston obtained his patent, Percifer Carr, in his 
employment, arrived with his family. He had sailed 
from England in the same vessel as John Tunnicliffe, 
ancestor of the well-known family of Richfield. This 
was as early as 1765. Carr began a clearing, and to 
him Cooper perhaps refers as one of those who com¬ 
posed the small community at Mount Edmeston. 
At South Edmeston is still preserved a clock which 
Colonel Edmeston brought to this country from 
England. To this locality in 1774 came Abel and 
Gideon De Forest, who seem to have belonged to 
the French Huguenot stock which had made still 
earlier settlements on the northern part of Manhat¬ 
tan Island, now known as Harlem. 

The locality was not far from the scene of an in¬ 
cident of the French War—German Flatts, where 
in 1751 had arisen a village of sixty dwellings and 
about 300 souls. An attack was made on the settle¬ 
ment by a French officer named Beletre on Novem¬ 
ber 12, 1757. He aroused the settlers at three 
o’clock in the morning, burned their buildings, 
killed forty or fifty persons, and made prisoners of 
about 130. Beletre, after killing all the cattle and 
horses, hastily retreated, and when Lord Howe 

123 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


came up from Schenectady he found “ nothing but 
an abandoned slaughter field.” From this village, 
either before its destruction or soon after, settlers 
probably crossed the hills to the Unadilla—the dis¬ 
tance being about ten miles. 

The entire Mohawk Valley had then become a 
fairly populous place, from which a family now and 
then sought new land on the Susquehanna. In 
1757 a French traveller between German Flatts and 
the mouth of the Mohawk found 683 farm-houses 
on the way, not including houses in the villages of 
Canajoharie, Fort Hunter, and Schenectady, the lat¬ 
ter town having 300. Many of these dwellings 
were built of stone. Circumstances point to con¬ 
temporary settlements on the Unadilla River above 
its mouth. Several families which came in after 
the Revolution are believed to have been here be¬ 
fore it began. Patents having been issued, it was 
almost inevitable that settlements should be begun. 
Owners of patents desired first of all things to see 
their lands occupied. Besides Scotch-Irish, Ger¬ 
mans came. We know that when the war began, 
some of the Unadilla settlers who fled before Brant, 
went to German Flatts instead of Cherry Valley. 

In Richfield Springs, on the Schuyler patent, settle¬ 
ments as early as 1758 had been begun. Remains of 
them were found near Schuyler’s Lake * after the war. 
A small improvement at the foot of the lake was 
known as the Herkimer farm, and the creek at the 
same place also bore the Herkimer name. Near the 
site of Richfield Springs had settled the family of 
Tunnicliffe on an estate to which they gave the name 

* Now called Canadurango Lake. It lies near the village of Rich¬ 
field Springs. On a map of 1756 it is called Canadurango Lake, which 
shows that its original name has been restored to it. 

124 


THE FIRST SETTLERS 


of The Oaks, used afterward as a name for Oaks 
Creek.* At the head of Otsego Lake, as early as 
1762, a settlement had been planted, one of the 
men being Nicholas Lowe of New York, who for a 
time, according to Richard Smith, lived on the place. 
At the foot of the lake white men probably had 
lived at much earlier dates *j* than these—for the 
most part traders—and in 1761 John Christopher 
Hartwick had obtained his patent to the lands that 
still bear his name, but his deed from the Indians 
was dated in 1752. Mr. Hartwick, in attempting 
to take possession in 1761, settled at the foot 
of Otsego Lake, only to discover that this place 
was not included in his patent. In consequence, 
his actual settlement further south was delayed 
several years. In 1800 Mr. Hartwick committed 
suicide. 

Throughout Otsego the Fort Stanwix treaty 
stimulated immigration at once. Here now was a 
vast and fertile territory which might be peacefully 
occupied. For two or three years the surveyor’s 
chain and rod became familiar instruments. Care- 


* Levi Beardsley’s Reminiscences. Mr. Beardsley read law in Cherry 
Valley, where he devoted some thirty years to its practice. He served 
in the Assembly, and was twice elected State Senator, being president 
of the Senate in his last term. Mr. Beardsley, who had accumulated a 
large property, lost heavily on land investments—losses which he might 
have borne had he not become further involved by indorsements. Re¬ 
moving to Columbus, O., where he had a farm, he again lost through 
fire. Disposing of the land, he returned East, and spent his old age in 
New York City, where his Reminiscenses were published—a large 
volume filled with matter of much interest in Otsego County. It is 
written in an elevated and flexible style, and reveals an understanding at 
once vigorous and generous. It has a charm not always found in the 
writings of old men who have met with misfortune—being tolerant and 
sympathetic as well as intellectual, and it has not a trace of bitterness 
toward any human being. The reader closes it with a feeling that its 
author was an inspiring example of the old man beautiful. 

t Cooper in The Deerslayer places them there in 1743-45. But 
these must have been traders. 


125 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


ful and elaborate maps were drawn and parchment 
deeds executed. 

Contemporary with the treaty were new settlers at 
the two ends of Otsego Lake, the Springfield one 
being occupied by Captain Augustin Prevost, who 
had served in the British army in Jamaica, and the 
one at the southern end by Prevost’s father-in-law, 
Colonel Croghan. Captain Prevost was making 
improvements in May, 1769. He had built a log- 
house, had cleared sixteen or eighteen acres of land, 
and erected a saw-mill, “the carpenter’s bill of which,” 
says Smith, “came to $ 1 50.” He had arrived early 
during the previous year, taking up a house which 
Nicholas Lowe had occupied. Sir William John¬ 
son described him in 1769 as having “ a good 
property.” Three miles west of Prevost a Mr. 
Young, before 1769, had erected a saw-mill, from 
which Prevost probably got his lumber. Prevost 
brought in several families and employed them 
in making improvements.* Between him and Cherry 
Valley existed a German settlement of ten families 
who had come into the country in 1767. A man 
named Myers kept a tavern and established a pot¬ 
tery in what is now the town of Middlefield. Twelve 
families were living there in 1769. 

Colonel Croghan, in the summer of 1769, had car¬ 
penters and other men at work building two dwellings 
and five or six other structures. While attempting 
to colonize his extensive tract, he lived on it for a 
few years with his family. About this time a man 
named Cully, from Cherry Valley, made a settle- 

* At the time Springfield was burned, in 1778, the following were the 
heads of families who were driven out: George Canouts, Isaac Collier, 
William Staneel, George Mayer, Conrad Picket, Henry Bratt, David 
Teygert, Adolph Wallrath, Isaac Quack, John Spallsbery, Jonah Heath, 
Henry Deygert, George Bush, and a Mrs. Davis. 

126 


THE FIRST SETTLERS 


ment at the mouth of Cherry Valley Creek. Others 
in the same neighborhood were named Carr and 
Burrows. In the town of Maryland, on the Sche- 
nevus Creek, farms had been taken up, and the 
place had received its present name as early as 
1769. The same appears to be true of Worcester. 

Contemporary with Croghan was Colonel Staats 
Long Morris, who came to view and make plans for 
the Morris patent. With him came his wife, the 
Dowager Duchess of Gordon, their route into the 
country having been from Catskill over a road to 
the Schoharie or Charlotte River, and thence to the 
Susquehanna. Colonel Morris in 1770 had induced 
settlers to make their homes on his tract; among 
them Andre Renouard at Elm Grove, and Louis 
and Paschal Franchot in Louisville, which they 
named after the French King. The Franchots had 
recently come to America from France. In 1892 
their last male descendant in the county died at 
Morris. Other Frenchmen appear to have followed. 
Cooper makes Leather Stocking refer to “ one or two 
Frenchmen that squatted on the flats and married 
squaws.” In 1777 followed Benjamin Lull with 
several grown-up sons, and then Jonathan Moore 
from Dutchess County. In the same year Ebenezer 
Knapp took up his home on Butternut Creek, 
and Increase Thurston soon followed him. Other 
families on this stream were named Brooks, Garret, 
and Johnson. The settlements formed by these 
men were known collectively as the Old England 
District. 

With the survey of the Otego patent in 1769 
preparations were made for a large immigration. 
With Smith and Wells, who were from Burlington, 
N. J., had come Joseph Biddle, William Ridgway, 

127 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


and John Hicks. The survey completed, they 
began to bring into the country goods and building 
material. One of those whom they induced to settle 
was Joseph Sleeper, a Quaker preacher from their 
own State, who built the first saw-mill in what is 
now Laurens,* and also the first grist-mill. For 
erecting his grist-mill, Sleeper received an additional 
gift of ioo acres of land lying on both sides of Fac¬ 
tory Creek, a tributary of the Otego. Sleeper was 
not only a preacher, but a surveyor, millwright, car¬ 
penter, stone-mason, and blacksmith, and built 
his mills himself. His patrons often lived thirty 
miles away. Sleeper intended to plant a Quaker 
colony around his mills, but the Revolution inter¬ 
fered with the enterprise. Brant was a frequent visi¬ 
tor at his house. Sleeper lived on friendly terms with 
all the Indians. William Ferguson belongs to this 
period in the settlement of Laurens. He was from 
Cherry Valley, as was also Joseph Mayall, who ar¬ 
rived in 1771 and was followed by others. Mayall 
had been employed by Smith and Wells as a chain- 
bearer, and afterward in the war gained repute as a 
scout. By trade he was a weaver, and it is related 
that he used standing trees as supports for his 
loom. 

Richard Smith was a frequent visitor to the Otego 
patent after making the survey—for once in 1773 
and again in 1777. In 1770 he took title to 4,000 
acres lying on both sides of the Otsdawa Creek, a 

* Named after Henry or John Laurens. Henry Laurens was presi¬ 
dent of Congress in 1777-78. He was afterward captured by the Brit¬ 
ish, imprisoned in the Tower of London, and exchanged for Lord Corn¬ 
wallis. In 1782, with Jay and Franklin, he negotiated the treaty of 
peace. He was a native of South Carolina and died in 1792. His son, 
John Laurens, was aide and secretary to Washington, taking part in every 
battle of the Revolution in which Washington’s immediate command 
was engaged. 


128 


THE FIRST SETTLERS 


few miles above its mouth. He owned another tract 
on Otego Creek, in the town of Laurens, on which 
he built a large house to which he gave the name of 
Smith Hall. This house was still standing in 1896. 
During his tour of the valley, he had for guide 
Joseph Brant, whose wife and child went with the 
party. Smith was a brother of Samuel Smith, the 
historian of New Jersey. He was elected a mem¬ 
ber of the Continental Congress, and served until 
1776, when his health failed. 

Near the mouth of Otego Creek about 1772 
settled Henry Scramling, who took up 1,000 acres 
on both sides of the Susquehanna, and during the 
war was a second lieutenant in the Tryon County 
militia. Near the mouth of the Charlotte settled 
Henry Young, whose family appear to have been at 
Worcester, Mass., with the Rev. William John¬ 
ston thirty years before. Henry Scramling had 
two brothers, David and George, who came with 
him, either before the war or on his return after it. 
Some of the Scramling lands have never passed from 
possession of the family, who originally were from 
Fort Plain. George Scramling kept the first tavern 
in Oneonta, on a site where afterward stood the 
Peter van Woert residence. David Young was a 
brother-in-law of Henry Scramling, and with him 
came his brother, John Young. Another early 
Oneonta name is Stoughton Alger, who lived on 
land now known as the Bingham and Pierce farms, 
and John van Derwerker, who became a captain in 
Colonel Harper’s regiment in the Revolution. Van 
Derwerker built the first grist-mill in the town, on 
what are now called the Morrell Flatts, remains of it 
being still visible. His daughter became the wife 
of John Young, who kept a hotel for many years. 

129 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


The most of these Oneonta families were from the 
Mohawk Valley. 

Captain Peter Bundy, of Salem, Mass., is said to 
have come to lands now a part of Otego in ! 777 > 
which is probably a mistake for an earlier date, as 
the war was then in progress. He settled here again 
after the war. Mr. Bundy brought a family of chil¬ 
dren with him, his household goods being conveyed 
on a sled shod with wood and drawn by oxen. 
Near Otego village a family named Ogden settled. 
They were from Saratoga County, where they had 
lived for perhaps ten years, and had a son named 
David who joined Colonel Harper’s regiment in the 
Revolution as second lieutenant. 

To the Scotch-Irish of Cherry Valley we proba¬ 
bly owe the coming of the men who settled in what 
was long known as the paper-mill district of Una- 
dilla. One of them was Dr. McWhorter, who as 
late as 1840 was living in Cortland County, then 
an octogenarian. He told Harvey Baker he had 
“ studied medicine and commenced its practice in 
Unadilla” while that town was in Albany County, 
which fixes the date as before 1772. From this we 
may infer that at that time settlers had arrived in 
considerable numbers. 

By the early summer of 1777 it is certain that 
this part of Unadilla had become what for the time 
was a village. A map of the valley made in the 
following year by Captain Gray indicates a number 
of dwellings as then standing, and calls the place 
Unadilla Town. Some of these families seem to 
have occupied farms afterward known as the Gould 
Bacon, Bundy, Deyo, McMaster, Arms, and Nor¬ 
man Foster farms. Soon after the Fort Stanwix 
treaty, three families were here, their names being 

130 


THE FIRST SETTLERS 


Woodcock, Sluyter (or Sliter), and Dingman. The 
Sliters came in 1770, and were from Poughkeepsie, 
where their ancestor had settled in 1663. Others 
soon came. Mr. Johnston, the founder of Sidney, 
induced families to follow him from the Mohawk 
Valley and others from Cherry Valley. One of 
these was his son-in-law, David McMaster, who 
afterward, if not then, took up a home on Unadilla 
soil. Before the war, and probably in 1772, Rob¬ 
ert McGinnis acquired title to lots 61 and 63 of the 
Wallace patent and settled on them. He was after¬ 
ward active in the British cause. 

The family of Harper, of Cherry Valley, who 
were to become the stanchest patriots during the 
Border Wars, along with seventeen other persons, 
secured a patent in what was afterward named Har- 
persfield. It comprised 22,000 acres.* John Har¬ 
per, the principal proprietor, in 1770 went over to 
the head of the Charlotte with his wife and a sur¬ 
veyor whom Governor Tryon had sent out. While 
the men were engaged in making the survey, Mrs. 
Harper erected a rude log-hut with bark roof, and 
spent several days and nights in it alone. The 
entire family came over from Cherry Valley in the 
following spring. Besides John, the father, and 
Abigail, his wife, there were nine children, includ¬ 
ing William, who became a member of the Provin¬ 
cial Congress; James, who took part in the war; 
Mary, who was made a prisoner at the massacre of 
Cherry Valley and carried into captivity; John, who 
held a colonel’s commission during the Revolution; 
Joseph, who fought against the Indians in Harpers- 

* The title-deed to this tract long remained in the possession of the 
Harper family. In 1861 it was destroyed in a fire at West Harpersfield. 
The seal attached to it was of the usual kind for that period, a thick piece 
of wax, round and large as a tea-saucer. 

I 3 I 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


field and Schoharie, and Alexander, who fought at 
Joseph’s side and was made a captain. After the 
war Alexander was a prominent land-owner in Del¬ 
aware County, and later went to Ohio, where he 
founded a place called Harpersfield. 

Of all the Scotch-Irish who settled on the upper 
Susquehanna we have the fullest account of the Rev. 
William Johnston. He was a native of Mullow 
Malo, Tyrone, had been seven years a student at 
Edinburgh University, and came to America before 
1736, when under twenty-five years of age. He 
in time found his way to Worcester, Mass., where 
some of his countrymen formed a Presbyterian 
church, with him for pastor; but from the Congre- 
gationalists they met with violent opposition. When 
they had nearly completed a church edifice, it was 
attacked at night, chopped down and destroyed. 
An appeal for redress was met with reply that Mr. 
Johnston’s ordination was “ disorderly.” Permission 
to rebuild was refused. The whole body of Scotch- 
Irish then left the place, many of them going with 
Mr. Johnston to Windham, near Londonderry, 
N. H., where in 1747 Mr. Johnston was made pas¬ 
tor of a young church, holding its first meetings in 
a barn. He served the church with “ great faith¬ 
fulness ” until 1752, when, for want of proper sup¬ 
port, he laid down his charge. At Windham he 
married Anna Witter Cummings, daughter of a 
physician in the British service, and said to have 
had an income of $600 a year, which was cut off 
during the Revolution. 

From Windham Mr. Johnston found his way to 
Schenectady County, and with him went some of the 
Scotch-Irish. In that region he preached many 
years. That he knew the men of Cherry Valley is 

132 


THE FIRST SETTLERS 


clear enough, and that he should have acquired an 
interest in the Susquehanna region was natural, for 
at Schenectady lived many of the best-known fur 
traders, and not far from the place was the home 
of Sir William Johnson. Accordingly, in the sum¬ 
mer of 1770 he came in by way of Cherry Valley. 
Accompanied by an Indian guide he went as far 
down as Oghwaga, where were missionaries with 
whose work he was familiar. He no doubt bore 
some message from Sir William Johnson, and 
through Johnson’s influence aimed to establish 
friendly relations with the red men. He described 
the Indians as living on venison, fish, beans, and 
corn. Deer existed by the thousands and fish by 
the hundred thousand. 

Returning to Schenectady, Mr. Johnston, from 
Mr. Banyar, “ purchased a tract of 640 acres situ¬ 
ated at the flats one mile east of the Unadilla 
Forks” (sic) for $1 per acre. On 250 acres 
of this land was white pine timber of the largest 
size. In the following year he went back to his 
land with his son Witter. In the autumn he con¬ 
cluded to leave his son with the three friendly Ind¬ 
ian families living at the place, and returned to com¬ 
plete arrangements for bringing his wife and other 
children into the country. During the summer he 
and Witter had erected a log-house sixteen by twen¬ 
ty-two on the west side of what was afterward known 
; as Brant Hill, and had cleared some land. Besides 
his wife he brought back in the spring four daugh- 
I ters and his son Hugh, born in Duanesburgh in 

1 1763- 

Other families soon followed them. Captain 
J Gray’s map shows for this settlement two mills 
which John Carr built on what is now known as 

1 33 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


the Baxter mill site, near the mouth of Carr’s Creek, 
the iron for these mills having been carried on his 
back by Carr himself from Otsego Lake. Another 
building at the same place was John Carr’s dwell¬ 
ing, while farther west were a number of houses, 
one of which was Mr. Johnston’s. In the account 
that has come down to us of the settlement at the 
time of Brant’s visit in 1777, Brant’s words of warn¬ 
ing are: “ I will give these five families forty-eight 
hours to get away. So long they shall be safe.” 
By “ five families ” Brant meant those who would 
not declare themselves for the King. Dingman, 
Carr, and Woodcock were Tories. Of the five 
“ rebel ” families, we know the name of only two— 
Johnston and Sliter. 

When the church at Worcester, Mass., was dis¬ 
persed by the Congregationalists, Lincoln says many 
of its numbers “ emigrated to the colony on the 
banks of the Unadilla in New York,” from which 
it would appear that they were in advance of Mr. 
Johnston by many years. It is more probable that 
during the thirty years following the dispersion, they 
had remained with him in Windham and the Mo¬ 
hawk Valley. Three years after the Johnstons ar¬ 
rived, a young Indian poisoned himself from disap¬ 
pointment in love. He was buried in the ground 
set apart by the Johnstons for a cemetery, and his 
grave was the first ever opened in that ground. Mr. 
Johnston read a Christian burial-service over this 
young heathen child of the forest. A baptismal 
bowl of old blue china, which Mr. Johnston brought 
to America from Scotland, was in use for many years 
in the church at Sidney, and is now in possession of 
John Henry Johnston. 

But the town of Sidney had been settled at another 
*34 


THE FIRST SETTLERS 


point. Several families had taken up farms on the 
site of the future Wattles’s Ferry. Sometimes the 
place was known as Albout, or Ouleout,* and some¬ 
times as the Scotch Settlement. The earliest au¬ 
thentic date connected with it does not go back of 
the beginning of the war, but its origin seems to 
date from near the time of Mr. Johnston’s arrival. 
These men undoubtedly came from Cherry Valley. 
None of their names has come down to us. Even 
the part which they took in the war is in doubt. 
Priest says they went to Cherry Valley, which im¬ 
plies that they were Whigs, but another statement 
is that they became Tories and went to Canada. It 
is not unlikely that both parties were represented in 
this little village. 

The mills on Carr’s Creek were not important 
mills, except as the earliest industries in all that re¬ 
gion. Some years later Abraham Fuller built larger 
ones on the Ouleout at East Sidney, where now 
stand the mills long known as Lloyd’s. The date 
given for this enterprise is 1778, which is, perhaps, 
too early, but if correct it shows that along this 
stream were many farms then in cultivation. 

The foregoing is the available record of pioneers 
who invaded the Susquehanna before the great con¬ 
flict. The settlements they made marked the far¬ 
thermost advance westward in the province of New 
York. If we bear in mind the Fort Stanwix line, we 
can understand why the first settlement in Bingham¬ 
ton was not made until 1787 ; the first in Ithaca not 
until 1784; in Elmira, not until 1787 ; in Auburn, 
not until 1793, and in Buffalo not until 1794. 

* Written Aulyoulet in 1768 and translated for Dr. Beauchamp as A 
Continuing Voice. In 1779 a stream “ east of Unadilla ” was called the 
Owarioneck, which meant Where the Teacher Lives. This was, per¬ 
haps, the Indian name of Carr’s Creek. 

*35 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Therein lies the special eminence of the upper Sus¬ 
quehanna lands as an old New York frontier. 

By these men was initiated on this frontier that 
perpetual warfare of man against nature to which 
an actual end never will come so long as “ water 
runs and grass grows.” It is a familiar story of 
pioneer life and has often been described—that first 
warfare waged with the axe and fire against count¬ 
less numbers of towering trees covering hills and 
bottom-lands with primeval growths. On sites 
where other giants had grown up and died of old 
age in the long and uncounted past, the pioneer, by 
felling these prides of the forest, literally cut out the 
space whereon to rear his humble home, its roof of 
bark, its walls of logs, its floor the bare earth. 

Gradually he extended his cleared area and was 
able to plant corn and wheat, the blackened piles of 
half-burnt logs and the enormous stumps he could 
not extract making later in the season the only 
blemishes on the golden surface of his autumn fields. 
Beyond his clearing lay the narrow forest-borders of 
his home. From the smallness of his first expanse 
of cleared land, sprang a feature that became familiar 
to many frontier homes. It was well into the fore¬ 
noon ere the sun could reach his cabin-door, and it 
was early in the second half of the day when the last 
rays of light vanished from his western windows, 
casting dark shadows from the adjacent forest over 
his small domain. 

As time went on, the pioneer’s problem was how 
to get rid of vast accumulations of timber in fields 
where he had felled the pine, the oak, and the maple. 
Enormous bonfires were lighted, and from the re¬ 
mains pot and pearl ashes were obtained. These 
fires made stirring scenes to look upon and must 

136 


THE FIRST SETTLERS 


have been a chief source of heightened pleasure for 
the small boy. On hill-sides as well as in valleys, 
conflagrations were lighted, and so vast were some of 
them as to brighten and make resplendent at night 
for miles around the hills across the valleys, the 
waters of streams, and the azure sky above them all. 
Not less familiar were the noises made by falling 
trees and the resounding axe-blows that were echoed 
back from neighboring hills. 


137 


V 


Journal of a Tour in 1769 

T HE journal of Smith and Wells gives us not 
only an authentic description of settlements, 
but many other facts important to a history 
of the pioneers. Smith and his companion had left 
their home early in May for New York, and had 
proceeded up the Hudson in a sloop to Albany, 
and by the Mohawk to Canajoharie, or “ to Scram- 
lin’s, which is nearly opposite to Col. Fry’s.” The 
journal often shows us where roads had been opened. 
The condition of the frontier roads proves, as nothing 
else can, how deep an impression had been made on 
the wilderness. 

First of all roads to the Susquehanna, was the 
Cherry Valley one from Canajoharie, by way of Bow¬ 
man’s Creek, which had been begun soon after the 
founding of the settlement in 1740. A quarter of a 
century later Smith described it as from the Mohawk 
“ the only wagon road to Lake Otsego.” As early 
as 1768 there existed a road westward from Catskill 
to the Susquehanna, which we must accept as the 
beginning of a turnpike completed more than thirty 
years afterward. While at Catskill in May, Smith 
learned that the Duchess of Gordon and Colonel 
Morris had just gone by that route “ to Cherry 
Valley and the Susquehanna with two wagons.” 
On reaching Cherry Valley himself, Smith was in¬ 
formed that “ there is a route from Kaatskill across to 
this line, namely : from Kaatskill to Akery, 8 miles; 
to Batavia, 12; to Red Kill, 8 ; from Red Kill to 
a lake at the head of the Mohawks, or main branch 

138 





JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN 1769 

of the river Delaware,* 12, and to Otego about 16 ; 
in all 56 miles.” At “ Yokums ” Smith learned from 
Mr. van Valkenburg of a path to Schoharie, “the 
same which Col. Morris and the Duchess of Gordon 
lately took on horseback with their retinue.” 

At this period a primitive road also existed from 
Cherry Valley westward to Springfield, while an¬ 
other went to the settlement at Middlefield. Over 
the route from the Mohawk to Cherry Valley went 
many Connecticut people who, before the Revolu¬ 
tion, settled in the Wyoming Valley. With the set¬ 
tlements that followed the Fort Stanwix treaty, came 
roads in various parts of the country. In I 777 
there existed not only a footpath down the valley 
from Otsego Lake, but “ some thing of a road along 
the river.” f Another ran from the upper Otego 
Creek Valley to Otsego Lake. Richard Smith, Na¬ 
thaniel Edwards, and others built it in the summer 
of 1773. The lake at Richfield was then connected 
with Otsego Lake, and elsewhere forests had been 
opened and hills crossed in order to provide routes 
shorter than those which followed the courses of 
streams. These roads, however, were scarcely more 
than narrow lines of clearing through the wilder¬ 
ness. They represented one of the two extremes 
in roads, of which the other is represented by mac¬ 
adam and asphalt. But in the Smith journal we find 
many other statements that light up the history of 
what to this generation is an unknown period in 
Susquehanna history, and among them these : 

13th May, 1769—At Scramlin’s we turned off from the 
river, pursuing a S. W. course for Cherry Valley. 

* Summit Lake is probably here referred to, but it is the head of the 
Charlotte instead of the Delaware. 

t Affidavit of John Dresler, in the “ Brant MSS.” of the Draper Col¬ 
lection. 

1 39 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 

We met, on their return, four wagons which had carried 
some of Col. Croghan’s goods to his seat at the foot of 
Lake Otsego. The carriers tell us they were paid 30 shil¬ 
lings a load each for carrying from Scramlin’s to Capt. 
Prevost’s, who is now improving his estate at the head of 
the lake. . . . There are farms and new settlements 

at a short distance all the way from the Mohawk river. In 
Cherry Valley there are about 40 or 50 families, mostly of 
those called Scotch-Irish, and as many more in the vicinity 
consisting of Germans and others. 

14th—Being Sunday we attended Major Wells and his 
family to the new Presbyterian meeting house, which is large 
and quite finished, and heard a sermon from the Rev. Mr. 
Delap (r/V), an elderly, courteous man who has lived in this 
settlement about 20 years. The congregation though not 
large, made a respectable appearance, several of them being 
genteely dressed. From our lodgings, about the center of 
the valley, down to the mouth of Cherry Valley Creek they 
reckon 12 or 14 miles, and in freshet one may pass in canoe 
from the house to Maryland. There are 3 grist mills and one 
saw mill, and divers carpenters and other tradesmen. . . . 

16th—This morning we proceeded in Col. Croghan’s 
batteau, large and sharp at each end, down the lake. 

This situation commands a view of the whole lake and is 
in that respect superior to Prevost’s. Here we found a 
body of Indians, mostly from Ahquahga, come to pay their 
devoirs to the Col. Some of them speaks a little English. 
. . . We lodged at Col. Croghan’s, and next morning 

got all ready to go on the survey, Robert Picken, our other 
surveyor, being gone down to wait upon the Duchess of 
Gordon and Col. Morris, whose tract adjoins to our patent. 

17th—We departed at 9 o’clock with two pack horses 
carrying provisions and baggage and one riding horse with 
men on chairs, carriers and servants, and two Mohawk Ind¬ 
ians as guides, one of them Joseph Brant.* . . . Our 

* Brant’s home at this time was in Canajoharie, where he had lived 
since returning from the West in 1764. Theophilus Chamberlain, the mis¬ 
sionary, when sick from exposure, had been Brant’s guest, and says he 
found him " exceeding kind.” 


14O 









JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN 1769 

Indians in half an hour erected a house capable of shelter¬ 
ing us from the wet, for it rained most of the day and night 
succeeding. 

Several days were spent in making the Otego 
survey and then the party returned to Colonel Crogh- 
an’s house at the lake, from which in a few days 
they departed on their return home. They chose 
as their route the Susquehanna to Oghwaga and 
thence went to Cookoze on the Delaware, whence 
they proceeded to Easton, Trenton, and Burling¬ 
ton. Following are the most interesting points 
concerning the journey from the lake to Oghwaga : 

May 25th—We finished and launched our canoe into 
the lake. She is 32 feet 7 inches in length and 2 feet 4 
inches broad. 

May 27th—We engaged Joseph Brant, the Mohawk, to 
go down with us to Aquahga. Last night a drunken Indian 
came and kissed Col. Croghan and me very joyously. Here 
are natives of different Nations almost continually. They 
visit the Deputy Superintendent as dogs to the bone, for 
what they can get. John Davies, a young Mohawk, one 
of the retinue, who has been educated at Dr. Wheelock’s 
school in Connecticut, now quitted our service to march 
against the Catawbas. 

May 29th—Myself, with Joseph Brant, his wife and child, 
and another young Mohawk named James, went down in 
the new canoe to our upper corner,* whilst the rest of the 
company travelled by land. This river from the lake Otsego 
hither is full of logs and trees and short crooked turns, and 
the navigation for canoes and batteaux requires dexterity. 

May 31st—At 7 o’clock we decamped for Skenever’s 
and hit the Susquehanna near two miles below. Then fol¬ 
lowing the common Indian path we arrived at the landing 
opposite to Yokum’s House at 1 o’clock. He is a Dutch- 


A mile or two above the mouth of Cherry Valley Creek. 
I 4 I 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


man, but speaks good English, pays no rent as yet to Liv¬ 
ingston, built the house, but found the orchard already 
planted by the Indians, who also planted one at the mouth 
of Otego. . . . The trees are ever tall and lofty, 

sometimes two hundred feet high and straight, but not pro¬ 
portionally large in circumference, except some white pines 
and a few particular trees of other kinds.* ... In the 
afternoon we went over the river to Yokum’s House. The 
orchard planted by the natives is irregular and not in rows. 
The Indian graves in the orchards are not placed in any 
regular order nor shaped in one fashion. One of them was 
a flat pyramid of about three feet high, trenched round. 
Another was flatted like a tomb, and a third something like 
our form. 

Yokum’s Indian corn is planted but not yet come up. 
The Indians are not troublesome to him, though they often 
call at his house. He obtains his necessaries chiefly from 
Cherry Valley. Col. Morris and the Duchess lodged three 
nights at his house two or three weeks ago with a large train 
of attendants. They went over to view their tract at Una- 
dilla, or, as some call it, Tunaderrah. Here we met with 
one Dorn, a Dutchman, with his family from Canajoharie 
going to settle at Wywomoc.f He informs us that 130 
families from his neighborhood on the Mohawk river have 
actually bought there and are about to remove. 

June 1st—Messrs Wells and Biddle this day marked out 
a path to the intended store house on the creek Onoyaren- 
ton. . . . This evening our bark canoe being finished, at 
one half after five o’clock myself, Joseph Brant, his wife and 
child embarked in her with some loading, and Mr. Wells 
with James, the other Indian, in a small wood canoe contain¬ 
ing most of the Indians’ baggage and our own. Enjoying a 
fine serene evening we descended the stream for two hours, 
about ten miles, to a bark hut, where we found a fire 

* Eleven years after writing his journal, Smith added to the above 
statement the following note : “ Some years afterwards John Sleeper and 
myself measured a birch tree growing in his meadow on the borders of 
Otego Creek and found it twenty-six feet in circumference.” 

f Wyoming. 


142 


JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN 1769 

burning. We passed the Adiquetinge on the left and the 
Onoyarenton on the right. 

June 2nd—A bear came this morning near to us and was 
pursued by Brant and his dog, who, after some chase brought 
him in. This Mohawk it seems is a considerable farmer, 
possessing horses and cattle and one hundred acres of rich land 
at Canajoharie. He says the Mohawks have lately followed 
Husbandry more than formerly. In his excursion after the 
bear he says he was on the Onoyarenton and saw some 
good flats there. In an hour after our departure we arrived 
at the old field near the mouth of Otego, where we met 
William Ridgway. 

We dined here in company with Mr. William Harper 
and Mr. Campbell, the surveyor, who are now running out 
Harper’s patent. Ridgway and Hicks were likewise pres¬ 
ent. This field had been formerly planted by the Indians 
with corn and apple trees. A few of the latter remain 

scattered about.In three hours and three 

quarters from the mouth of Otego we reached a place on 
the East shore where we encamped. . . . Joseph be¬ 

ing unwell, took some tea of the Sassafras root and slept in 
the open air. 

June 3rd—We set out about seven o’clock, and in two 
hours we arrived at a small village of Mohiccons consisting 
of two houses on the right hand and three on the left, a 
mile above Unadilla. Here we went on shore and perceived 
the huts to be wretched and filled with women and children. 
They have cows and hogs and a little land cleared, with a 
garden fenced in and Indian corn planted very slovenly. 
Among the grass the cows were large and fat. 

At this village we left our wood canoe and engaged a 
good looking old Indian named Una to take us down in his 
canoe, and pilot over to the Delaware, which is his hunting 
country. He took a quarter of an hour to dress himself, his 
wife and little Son, and then we all embarked. These vil¬ 
lagers could not speak English. 

At one o’clock we arrived at an Oneida village of four 
or five houses, called the great Island or Cunnahunter. 

H3 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


The men were absent, but a number of pretty children 
amused themselves with shooting arrows at a mark. The 
houses resembled great old barns. One squaw in the canoe 
suckles her son, though he seems to be between two and 
three years old. We saw two apple trees before a door of 
this village. . . . Forty minutes after three o’clock 

we passed by two Indian houses on the left, and just before 
us saw some Indians setting fire to the woods. Several 
single huts are seated on such spots, and some are now build¬ 
ing houses, and apple trees are seen by these huts. 

At five o’clock we entered Ahquhaga, an Oneida town of 
fifteen or sixteen big houses, just at the moment of the 
transit of Venus, which Mr. Wells observed with a teles¬ 
cope he brought for that purpose. We took our lodgings 
with the Rev. Mr. Ebenezer Moseley. . . . This village 

has a suburb over the river on the Western side. Here is 
a small wooden fortress built some years ago by Captain 
Wells of Cherry Valley, but now used as a meeting house. 
. . . Each house possesses a paltry garden, wherein 

they plant corn, beans, watermelons, potatoes, cucumbers, 
muskmelons, cabbage, French turnips, some apple trees, 
salad, parsnips, and other plants. There are now two plows 
in the town, together with cows, hogs, fowls, and horses, 
which they sell cheap. We found the inhabitants civil 
and sober. 

June 4th—Ahquhaga contains about 140 souls, and the 
Tuscarora town (three miles below) about the same num¬ 
ber. At the last named place there is a shad fishery com¬ 
mon to the people of Ahquhaga also. They tie bushes to¬ 
gether so as to reach over the river, sink them with stones 
and haul them around by canoes. All persons present, in¬ 
cluding strangers, such is their laudable hospitality, have an 
equal division of the fish. . . . Some of the women 

wear silver brooches, each of which passes for a shilling, and 
are as current among the Indians as money. Brant’s wife 
had several tier of them in her dress to the amount perhaps 
of ten or fifteen pounds. . . . Brant was dressed in a suit 
of blue broadcloth, as his wife was in a calico or chintz gown. 

144 


PART IV 


The Border Wars Begun 

1776-1777 






I 


Causes that Led to the Wars 

1774-1777 

W HILE the pioneers continued to take up 
land, and the missionaries pursued their 
labors, strained relations between the 
colonies and the mother-land advanced to the point 
of rupture. Even if war with England were to 
come, few anticipated that this remote and secluded 
land would be one of its scenes. But in a few 
years the Susquehanna settlers were all driven from 
their homes. Forest lands which their toil had 
turned into cultivated fields, nature was soon to be¬ 
gin her irresistible and mysterious work of restoring 
to the wild and primeval state. 

When Sir William Johnson died, in 1774, he had 
seen more than a single warning that a storm was 
gathering in the sky, and that it might soon break 
in fury over the whole land. He had lived through 
the bitter years of the Stamp Act and its repeal; 
had observed the hostility engendered by the arri¬ 
val of General Gage in Boston ; had known of the 
Battle of Golden Hill and the Boston Massacre, 
and a few months before dying had heard of the 
casting of tea into Boston Harbor. Possessed as he 
was of a vast domain, and bound to the English 
Government by close political and personal ties, the 
situation may well have been the sternest that his 
strong and sagacious mind ever was called upon to 
face. His death has been attributed to suicide, but 

H 7 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


this theory, which would account for its suddenness 
and the lack of information as to its cause, has never 
been well authenticated. 

As the breach widened, it was seen that in Tryon 
County lived hundreds of patriots, and none more 
stanch than the Scotch-Irish of the Susquehanna, 
to whom hostility to England was a passion already 
strong, through inheritance. With the call for a 
Continental Congress to meet in September, 1774, 
prompt sympathy was shown. In the Palatine dis¬ 
trict, Colonel Guy Johnson, who had succeeded to 
Sir William’s office, in vain endeavored to turn the 
current. In spite of him, the Palatine patriots, in 
August, a month after Sir William’s death, openly 
declared for the Congress and for “ the undeniable 
privilege to be taxed only with our own consent, 
given by ourselves or our representatives.” In 
Canajoharie and German Flatts the people were 
almost unanimous in support of these sentiments. 
Late in April, 1775, came news of great import from 
Boston. The fight at Lexington had occurred, and 
at Concord “ the embattled farmers ” again had met 
the red coats. 

As the British had lost 273 men, and the patriots 
only 103, here was a grave warning. Such was the 
alarm, that in May, Colonel Johnson’s followers 
actually believed the Colonel was “ in great fear of 
being taken by the Bostonians.” In consequence 
Johnson began to fortify at Johnstown, but the men 
of Cherry Valley, unawed by his course, held a 
stirring meeting in their church. Not only grown 
men and women, but children, attended it, the chief 
orator being Thomas Spencer, an Indian half-breed 
interpreter, whom Campbell describes as speaking 
“ in a strain of rude though impassioned elo- 

148 


CAUSES THAT LED TO THE WARS 


quence.” * In Harpersfield, a few months later, at 
the house of John Harper, a vigilance committee 
was formed, and the Palatine patriots sent a letter 
to the Albany committee declaring that they were 
resolved “ to be free or die.” *f* 

Not only in Tryon County, but in Boston and 
elsewhere, the Americans had been prompt to realize 
the important part which the Iroquois might play if 
the quarrel came to a clash of arms. Steps to secure 
their sympathies were taken as early as 1774. The 
Mohawks were approached through the Stock- 
bridge Indians, and Mr. Kirkland was depended 
on to look after the Oneidas. Communication with 
Brant was opened by his old teacher, Dr. Whee- 
lock, but it led to a response as unsatisfactory as it 
was characteristic. Brant said he had not forgotten 
the prayers he had heard at Lebanon, that they all 
might “ learn to fear God and honor the King.” 

Nor did the British overlook the Indians. Kirk¬ 
land wrote from Cherry Valley, in the winter of 
1774-75 that Colonel Johnson had received orders 
“ to remove the dissenting ministers from the Six 
Nations until the difficulty between Great Britain 
and the colonies was settled.” Colonel Johnson 
had already interfered with Kirkland’s work, and 
was “ unreasonably jealous.” 

The current of opinion, much as he sought to 
check it, steadily advanced in a direction hostile to 
Colonel Johnson. Late in May, 1775, he convened 
at Guy Park, his residence near Amsterdam, a con- 

*The active men in Cherry Valley included John Moore, Samuel 
Clyde, Samuel Campbell, James Scott, Samuel Dunlop, Robert Wells, 
James Richey, and James Moore. 

t Gould estimates the population of Harpersfield at this time as about 
fifty, which seems too low. No more than Stone and Campbell did 
Gould understand the extent to which the valley had been invaded be¬ 
fore the war. 

149 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


ference with the Indians, mostly Mohawks, to 
which came thirty chiefs and warriors from Oghwaga 
and other Susquehanna villages. He had now in 
readiness a domestic force of some 500 men, mainly 
Scotch Highlanders of the Catholic faith, and over 
them in command he placed Colonel John Butler.* 
The council soon adjourned, to meet at Cosby’s 
Manor, near German Flatts, but from this point, 
during the summer, Colonel Johnson and his follow¬ 
ers removed to Fort Stanwix. The current against 
him had become too strong everywhere, and when, 
late in June, he heard of the fight at Bunker Hill, 
he had no heart further to prolong resistance. Be¬ 
fore the month ended, he reached Oswego, and 
thence soon went to Canada. Campbell says few 
of the Mohawks ever returned to their homes on 
the banks of the stream that perpetuates their name. 
They abandoned the graves of their ancestors and 
never again did their council-fires burn in that val¬ 
ley. 

In July, 1775, w fi en Colonel Johnson and the 
Mohawks reached Montreal, they had an interview 
with Sir Guy Carleton and Sir Frederick Haldi- 
mand. Brant, in 1803, declared that at this inter¬ 
view Haldimand said to the Indians : “ Now is the 
time for you to help the King. The war has begun. 
Assist the King now, and you will find it to your 
advantage. Go now and fight for your possessions, 
and whatever you lose of your property during the 

*John Butler was a native of Connecticut, but had lived for many 
years in the Mohawk Valley. Under Sir William Johnson he had served 
as Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and in the Niagara cam¬ 
paign of 1759 and the Montreal expedition of 1760 commanded the Ind¬ 
ians under Johnson. He had large interests in land, but these posses¬ 
sions were confiscated after the war, and he returned to Canada. The 
English Government granted him a pension of $3,500 a year, with 5 > 000 
acres of land. 


150 


CAUSES THAT LED TO THE WARS 


war, the King will make up to you when peace re¬ 
turns.” Only the Mohawks seem to have been 
favorable to these proposals at that time, and not all 
of them, since the Lower Castle Mohawks, of whom 
Little Abraham was the chief, had not followed 
Colonel Johnson to Canada. As for the other Na¬ 
tions, four of them, in the following spring, sent dele¬ 
gates to Philadelphia for an interview with Congress. 
In an address to the President they said they hoped 
a state of friendship might “ continue as long as the 
sun shall shine, and the waters run.” They gave 
to John Hancock, President of Congress, the name 
of Karanduaan, meaning the Great Tree, a name 
which they afterward always knew him by. 

Colonel Guy Johnson was a strict and devoted 
Tory. Education and early associations had helped 
to make him a partisan of England. Never lack¬ 
ing in zeal for the King’s cause, he was now inspired 
to new industry by direct instructions from London. 
On July 24, 1775, the Earl of Dartmouth informed 
him that it was the King’s pleasure “ that you lose 
no time in taking such steps as may induce them 
(the Six Nations) to take up the hatchet against his 
Majesty’s rebellious subjects in America, and to en¬ 
gage them in his Majesty’s service upon such plan 
as shall be suggested to you by Gen. Gage, to 
whom this letter is sent, accompanied with a large 
assortment of goods for presents to them upon this 
important occasion.” It was “ a service of very 
great importance,” and he was not to fail “ to exert 
every effort that may tend to accomplish it,” or to 
use “ the utmost diligence and activity.” 

In August, 1775, the P atr i° ts under General Philip 
Schuyler, hoping to counteract Colonel Johnson’s 
influence with the Indians, convened a preliminary 

I 5 I 



THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


council at German Flatts, which met later in Albany. 
Colonel Barlow says about five hundred Indians 
reached Albany. He found them “ very likely, spry, 
lusty fellows, drest very nice for Indians. The 
larger part of them had on ruffeled shirts, Indian 
stockings and shoes, and blankets richly trimmed 
with silver and wampum.” On the day of the coun¬ 
cil they made “ a very beautiful show, being the like¬ 
liest, brightest Indians I ever saw.” Presents to the 
amount of 150 pounds worth of goods were made, 
and while the council was not wholly representative, 
the Indians solemnly agreed not to take up arms for 
either side. Of the Senecas, Mary Jemison says 
that for a year after the council “ we were enjoying 
ourselves in the employments of peaceful times,’’ob¬ 
viously a continuation of those idyllic times she has 
described in another part of her book, when “ for 
twelve or fifteen years the use of the implements of 
war was not known, nor the war whoop heard, save 
on days of festivity ”—times when, as she declared, 
there was peace, “ if peace ever dwelt with men.” 

There is no doubt that the Indians who were 
present acted in good faith in their professed friend¬ 
ship. When finally won over to the British in the 
summer of 1777, the entreaties made to them suc¬ 
ceeded for two reasons. One was a desire to be re¬ 
venged for their heavy losses at the battle of Oris- 
kany; the other, British appeals to their avarice. 

The colonists had some hope of retaining the 
friendship of Sir John Johnson, Sir William’s son 
and heir. It was believed that self-interest alone 
might make him cast his lot with them. But in the 
autumn of 1775, when approached on the subject, 
he replied, that “ sooner than lift his hand against 
his King, or sign any association, he would suffer 

152 


CAUSES THAT LED TO THE WARS 


his head to be cut off.” Sir John’s Toryism was 
sincere. He had been knighted by George III., 
as a special compliment to his father. Nothing 
remained to cement his attachment to the royal 
, cause. Indeed, Sir John bore the financial test. 
Stone could not doubt that he was a Loyalist from 
principle, “ else he would scarcely have hazarded as 
he did, and ultimately lost, domains larger and fairer 
than probably ever belonged to a single proprietor 
in America, William Penn alone excepted.” Sir 
John remained in the Mohawk Valley after Colonel 
Johnson’s departure, but finally was arrested, and 
then released on parole. In May, 1776, he took 
alarm at the outlook, and fled precipitately, leaving 
behind him the family Bible, which contained the 
evidence that, unlike other children of Sir William, 
he was legitimate. Four months before his flight 
he had proposed to Governor Tryon and Tryon 
to Lord George Germaine that he “ muster five 
hundred Indians to support the cause of govern¬ 
ment and that these with a body of regulars might 
retake the forts.” 

The immediate cause of Sir John’s flight was the 
arrival of Colonel Dayton at Johnstown with a part 
of his regiment, under orders to arrest him. With 
a large number of his followers, Sir John fled north¬ 
ward through the unbroken forest to the Sacondaga, 
and thence followed the upper waters of the Hudson, 
avoiding Lake Champlain, since he did not know 
in whose possession it then was—a journey lasting 
nineteen days, in which the party encountered severe 
suffering from long marches over difficult ground 
and from want of food. Sir John was soon made a 
colonel in the British army, and organized a force 
called the Royal Greens, composed of Loyalists who 

l S3 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 

had fled from the New York frontier, mainly former 
tenants and dependents of his estate. 

The course taken by the red men who followed 
Colonel Johnson to Canada is not difficult to under¬ 
stand. The Mohawks in particular, and the other 
Indians, except for a short period, had been allies of 
the English for a century. To them the complaints 
of the colonists about taxation without representa¬ 
tion, and the throwing of tea into Boston Harbor, 
were quite beyond understanding. The men of 
Boston resisting the soldiers of General Gage were 
like the French of Canada who had stormed English 
forts on the northern frontier; they were at war 
with the King of England, their friend who “ lived 
over the great lake.” Even the Oneidas, the most of 
whom adhered to the patriots, said they could not 
understand the war. Sending their love to Gov¬ 
ernor Trumbull, of Connecticut, they described the 
quarrel as “ unnatural.” “ You are two brothers,” 
they said, “of one blood. We Indians cannot find, 
nor recollect in the traditions of our ancestors, the 
like case or similar instance.” * 

The attitude which the Oneidas maintained 
through the war, is clearly traceable to the influence 
of the New England missionaries, and notably to 
Kirkland. Among the Indians who had been edu- 

* Of these friendly Oneidas, the most interesting and celebrated was 
Skenando, one of the accomplished warriors of that nation, who for 
long years after the Revolution continued to be known as “ the white 
man’s friend.” He survived until 1816, when his age was reputed to 
be one hundred and ten years. Mr. Kirkland, the missionary, had 
converted him before the Revolution, and he remained a Christian ever 
afterward. Not long before his death he said to a friend who had called 
upon him : “I am an aged hemlock. The winds of one hundred win¬ 
ters have whistled through my branches. I am dead at the top. The 
generation to which I belonged have run away and left me. Why I live 
the Great Good Spirit only knows. Pray to my Jesus that I may have 
patience to wait for my appointed time to die.” Skenando’s grave is 
at Clinton, Oneida County, alongside that of Kirkland. 

*54 




CAUSES THAT LED TO THE WARS 


cated at Lebanon for missionary work was Joseph 
Johnson. In 1775 he received from the Provincial 
Congress a message directed to the Oneidas, and 
about the same time the General Assembly of New 
Hampshire instructed him “ to use his utmost en¬ 
deavors to brighten the chain of friendship which 
has for many years subsisted between us and them.” 
With a letter from Dr. Wheelock he went to Cam¬ 
bridge in February, 1776, to see Washington, who 
wrote him a letter that he could show to the Six 
Nations: 

You have seen a part of our strength, and can inform 
our brothers that we can withstand all the force which those 
who want to rob us of our lands and our homes can send 
against us. You can tell our friends that they may always 
look upon me, whom the whole United Colonies have 
chosen to be their Chief Warrior, as their brother. 

Washington further said—and this is important 
in the light of the steps taken by the British Cabi¬ 
net to induce the Indians to fight with them— 

Tell them that we don’t want them to take up the 
hatchet for us, except they choose it; we only desire that 
they will not fight against us ; we want that the chain of 
friendship should always remain bright between our friends 
of the nations and us. 

Samson Occum, the Indian who had now risen 
to great repute as a teacher and preacher for his 
people, also gave Johnson a letter, in which he said : 

The former kings of England used to let the people of 
this country have their freedom and liberty ; but the pres¬ 
ent king of England wants to make them slaves to himself, 
and the people of this country don’t want to be slaves, and 
so they are come over to kill them, and the people here are 

*55 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


obliged to defend themselves. Use all your influence with 
your brethren not to intermeddle in these quarrels among 
the white people. 

In spite of these appeals it is not difficult to un¬ 
derstand the confusion of mind which the conflict 
gave to the Indians. These unlettered men could 
see plainly that even the province of New York was 
not bound as a unit to the cause. Here dwelt many 
friends of the King, eminent and honored citizens 
of the province, who steadfastly adhered to the royal 
cause. Too much should not have been expected 
of the Indians. Their wisest course unquestionably 
would have been to remain neutral, but this to an 
Indian was almost impossible. First, of all things, 
he loved war. It was his trade, and he excelled in 
it. It was his accomplishment and delight, the 
fountain, indeed, of all things that to him seemed 
glorious and honorable. When, finally, in 1777, the 
main body cast their lot with the King, it is to be 
said to their credit that they were keeping the an¬ 
cient “covenant chain.” With the close of the con¬ 
flict, when nothing but ruin and despair remained, 
they might have declared with a pride quite as just 
as the pride of Francis I. after Pavia: “All is lost 
save honor.” 


156 





II 


Why Brant Came to 
the 

Susquehanna 

I N the warfare that soon desolated the Susque¬ 
hanna Valley, a leading part was taken by Jo¬ 
seph Brant. The story of his life presents one 
of the most attractive narratives in the annals of the 
Iroquois. Stone’s stately monument to his mem¬ 
ory had been fairly earned. Brant was a man of 
real capacity for leadership, and, by nature, was mas¬ 
terful. He had initiative in enterprise, great per¬ 
sonal charm, and for success in civilized life was well 
endowed. He was now to enter a region which he 
had often visited from boyhood, and he was still a 
young man. 

Brant, whose Indian name was Thayendanegea, 
was born about 1742, on the Ohio River, to which 
his parents had gone from the Mohawk Valley, his 
father and mother being full-blooded Mohawks. 
On becoming a widow, his mother had returned to 
New York with Joseph and his sister Mary, com 
monly called Mollie, following the Susquehanna 
route from the head-waters of the Ohio. She set¬ 
tled at Canajoharie, where she married an Indian 
named Carrihogo. Stone believes that Nickus 
Brant, a Canajoharie chief of character and cele¬ 
brity, was the father of Joseph.* 

* The Indian name of Brant’s father, as given by Stone, was Teho- 
waghwengaraghkwin, a full-blooded Mohawk of the Wolf Tribe. Brant 
was “ of the noblest descent among his nation.” 

l Sl 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


The Clinton papers contain many references to 
Indians who bore the name of Brant. On a deed 
datea in 1760 is found the name Nicolas Brant, 
who was described as “ of the Beaver.” At an 
Indian council in 1765 held at Canajoharie, it was 
recorded that an Indian called “ Old Brant ” had 
“ flung a belt to let them know that it was their de¬ 
sire to their young men not to stir or move until 
such time as they should consent.” An Indian 
writing from New York in 1764 to Sir William 
Johnson, sent his regards to Rac-Soutagh, who, in 
a parenthesis, was described as “ Brant.” A pa¬ 
per dated in 1755 has signed to it the name of 
Brant. Sir William Johnson’s statement of ex¬ 
pense in 1760, sent to the British Crown, has 
among its items: “To Old Brant, chief of Canajo¬ 
harie, in lieu of clothing for his services, 6 pounds,” 
and again, “ to Brant of Canajoharie to buy pro¬ 
visions, 6 pounds.” Another and later item in the 
same year is this : “To Brant’s son two days after 
his father’s death, 12 shillings.” 

In the veins of Joseph Brant ran the blood of 
Indian chiefs of high distinction in the annals of 
the Iroquois. Of his grandfather, a portrait is re¬ 
produced in this volume from a mezzotint of the 
period—Sa Ga Yean Qua Rash Tow, “ King of the 
Mohawks, alias King Brant ”—who was one of the 
five kings whom Colonel Peter Schuyler, in 1710, 
took to England. These men of the forest, as already 
stated, became in London the lions of social and 
public life, much as Joseph Brant himself was twice 
to become two generations afterward. Of Brant’s 
visit an account was given in the London Magazine 
for July, 1776. Stone infers that it was written by 
Boswell, the biographer of Samuel Johnson, Brant 

158 


Sa Ga Yean Qua Rash Tow, King of the 
Mohawks (1710), alias King Brant, 
Joseph’s grandfather. 


I ee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row, Emperor of 
the Six Nations (1710). 



E low O Koam, King of the River Indians, Joseph Brant in i8os. 

or Mohigans (1710). His age, sixty-three. 

FOUR EMINENT NEW YORK INDIANS 








WHY BRANT CAME 


having become intimate with him. The visit in¬ 
evitably recalled the one made by the five Indian 
kings, of which Steele wrote an account for the 
Tatler and Addison one for the Spectator. As the 
Queen’s Court was then in mourning, the Indians 
followed the English custom of wearing black under¬ 
clothes, over which, instead of a blanket, they had a 
mantle of scarlet cloth edged with gold, a present 
from the Queen. 

Brant’s sister, Mollie, according to Indian custom, 
had become the wife of Sir William Johnson. She 
bore the familiar title of “ the Indian Lady Johnson,” 
and lived with him in a state of felicity down to his 
death in 1774. Stone gives as follows the tradition 
of the Mohawk Valley as to the ‘‘rather wild and 
romantic ” manner in which the acquaintance had 
begun : 

She was a very spritely and very beautiful Indian girl of 
about sixteen when he first saw her. It was at a regimen¬ 
tal military muster where Mollie was one of the multitude 
of spectators. One of the field officers coming near her on 
a prancing steed, by way of banter she asked permission to 
mount behind him. Not supposing she could perform the 
exploit, he said she might. At the word, she leaped upon 
the crupper with the agility of a gazelle. The horse sprang 
off at full speed, and clinging to the officer, her blanket fly¬ 
ing, and her dark tresses streaming to the wind, she flew 
about the parade-ground swift as an arrow, to the infinite 
merriment of the collected multitude. The baronet, who 
was a witness of the spectacle, admiring the spirit of the 
young squaw, and becoming enamoured of her person, took 
her home as his wife. 

It was under Sir William’s influence that Brant as 
a boy went to Dr. Wheelock’s school. He was a 
student there from August, 1761, until July, 1763. 

1 59 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Fifteen other Mohawk boys, and ten or more boys 
from other Indian tribes, also attended this school. 
One of them was William Johnson, a half-breed son 
of Sir William, and another was Moses, who after¬ 
ward conducted the Indian school at the foot of Ot¬ 
sego Lake. Dr. Wheelock wrote to Johnson that 
Brant was “ indeed an excellent youth,” and he had 
“ much endeared himself to his teacher.” 

On returning to the Mohawk Valley, in 1763, 
Brant was employed by Sir William as an interpre¬ 
ter, and Sir William’s accounts with the Crown show 
that for some years he was in receipt of ^83 per 
annum, with other payments for extra services. He 
appears to have become a leader among the Indians 
of the valley at a very early age. In the autumn 
of his return from Lebanon, when a line of patent 
was being run, the Indians were dissatisfied, and the 
Clinton manuscripts contain the following account 
of Brant’s participation in the dispute : “ A few Ind¬ 
ians, joined by Joseph Brant and some other young 
ones, ran and prevented their proceeding, and I ex¬ 
pected nothing but that chain and compass both 
would go to wreck. However, the storm blew over, 
not without great abuse.” 

It was while serving as interpreter to Sir William 
that Brant went down the Susquehanna Valley as 
guide to Richard Smith, which would seem to indi¬ 
cate that Johnson had placed Brant at Smith’s dis¬ 
posal. At Canajoharie, Brant owned a farm with a 
frame dwelling for his home. Its cellar-walls were 
standing as late as 1878 and showed the remains 
of a fireplace. In size the structure was about 14 
feet by 16. In 1772 his wife died and he removed 
to Fort Hunter, where he assisted Mr. Stuart, the 
missionary, in making translations into Mohawk of 

160 


WHY BRANT CAME 


the Catechism and Prayer-book, and became a com¬ 
municant of Mr. Stuart’s church. A year or so 
later he desired Mr. Stuart to marry him to the half- 
sister of his deceased wife, but Mr. Stuart refused to 
do so. Brant then found a German minister to per¬ 
form the ceremony. 

Brant’s history from this time until his arrival on 
the Susquehanna in November, 1776, shows that the 
conduct of the Mohawks in the early years of the 
war had for moving cause, not so much a desire to 
plunder settlements and murder pioneers as to secure 
redress for land grievances. Since the conclusion 
of the Fort Stanwix treaty, there had been chronic 
trouble over lands around the Mohawk villages. 
Sir William Johnson had earnestly desired to mend 
these matters, but he died without succeeding. 

Johnson’s correspondence shows with what pains 
he had espoused the Mohawk cause. In October, 
1769, he wrote to the acting governor, Cadwallader 
Colden, that Sir Henry Moore, the governor who 
had just died in office, promised to “ take some 
measures for effectually securing to the Mohawks 
and Canajoharies the lands in and about their vil¬ 
lages.” Johnson was persuaded that Colden would 
do “whatever was best for that end” and enclosed 
the surveys which he had had made by direction of 
Moore. In a later letter he said the work “ should 
certainly be done in the way that is most likely to 
be effectual, as well as satisfactory ” to the Indians, 
and he urged “ the strongest security against any 
future attempts to deprive them ” of their lands. 

Matters were still drifting when, in July, 1774, at 
a council held in Johnstown, and attended by about 
six hundred Indians, the chief of the Canajoharies 
made complaint against “ that old rogue, the dis- 

161 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


turber of our village, George Klock,” and referred to 
“ the many artifices he has made use of, to cheat us 
of our lands, and to create dissensions among our¬ 
selves.” Johnson replied that he was “ authorized to 
tell them that Klock’s conduct was disagreeable to 
the King.” When this council was about to dis¬ 
perse, Johnson was suddenly seized with illness, and 
early in the evening of the same day he died. Af¬ 
ter the funeral, which was attended by nearly two 
thousand persons, Gouldsborough Banyar being one 
of the pall-bearers, Johnson’s successor, Colonel Guy 
Johnson, his son-in-law, gave the Indians assurances 
that their complaints “ should be laid before gov¬ 
ernment.” 

Whatever Colonel Johnson may have done, it is 
clear that no results had been reached in November, 
1 775, when Brant and other Indian chiefs, with Col¬ 
onel Johnson and Captain Tice, sailed for England. 
They crossed in the same ship on which Ethan Allen 
and other prisoners taken at the Battle of the Cedars 
were conveyed to England. Two speeches on the 
subject of lands were made in London by Brant before 
Lord George Germaine, the Colonial Secretary, who 
was afterward to have charge of the conduct of the 
war in America. The first, made March 17, 1776, 
contains the following words : 

We have crossed the great lake, and come to this king¬ 
dom with our Superintendent, Col. Johnson, from our 
Confederacy, the Six Nations and their allies, that we might 
see our Father, the Great King, and join in informing him, 
his councillors, and wise men, of the good intentions of the 
Indians, our brethren, and of their attachment to his Majesty 
and his government. 

Brother. The Mohawks, our particular nation, have on 
all occasions shown their zeal and loyalty to the Great 

162 



WHY BRANT CAME 


King, yet they have been very badly treated by his people 
in that country, the City of Albany laying an unjust claim 
to the lands on which our Lower Castle is built, as one 
Klock and others do to those of Canajoharie, our Upper 
Castle. . . . We also feel for the distress in which 

our brethren on the Susquehanna are likely to be involved 
by a mistake made in the Boundary we settled in 1768. 
And also concerning religion, and the want of ministers of 
the Church of England. We have only, therefore, to re¬ 
quest that his Majesty will attend to this matter; it troubles 
our nation and they cannot sleep easy in their beds. In¬ 
deed it is very hard when we have let the King’s subjects 
have so much of our lands for so little value, they should 
want to cheat us in this manner of the small spots we have 
left for our women and children to live on. We are tired 
out in making complaints and getting no redress. 

The second speech was delivered on May 7th, 
and in a report of it “ wrote down as the same 
was dictated by the before named chief,” occur the 
following passages: 

Brother. When we delivered our speech, you answered 
in few words, that you would take care and have the griev¬ 
ances of the Six Nations, on account of their lands, particu¬ 
larly those of the Mohawks and Oughquagas, removed, 
and all those matters settled to our satisfaction, whenever 
the troubles in America were ended, and that you hoped 
the Six Nations would continue to behave with that attach¬ 
ment to the King they had always manifested; in which 
case they might be sure of his Majesty’s favor and protec¬ 
tion. 

We are not afraid, brother, or have we the least doubt, 
but our brethren, the Six Nations, will continue firm to 
their engagements with the King, their father. 

Brother. As we expect soon to depart for our own 
country, having been long here, we request you, and the 
great men who take charge of the affairs of government, not 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


to listen to every story that may be told about Indians, but to 
give ear only to such things as come from our chiefs and 
wise men in council. 

In the second of these speeches it is plain that 
Germaine, through his promise to redress these griev¬ 
ances after the war, and his promises of the King’s 
favor and protection, made sure of Brant’s adhesion 
to the English cause. To support that cause was 
now not an ancient privilege, but a newly awakened 
patriotic sentiment, founded in self-interest. Proba¬ 
bly on Germaine, more than on any other man, must 
responsibility rest, for Brant’s destructive zeal in the 
border warfare. Germaine’s record was already 
bad. At the battle of Minden, on the Continent, 
he had won unhappy eminence. He had the rank 
of lieutenant-colonel and was cashiered for coward¬ 
ice. Americans have little cause to hold his name 
in anything but opprobrious remembrance. The 
most vigorous measures against the colonists had 
his support, including not only the enlistment of 
the Six Nations, but the hiring of the Hessians, 
and the winning over of Arnold to treason. Tow¬ 
ard him was pointed the finger of the Earl of 
Chatham in that memorable speech on the Ameri¬ 
can war: 

But, my lords, who is the man, that, in addition to the 
disgrace and mischiefs of the war, has dared to authorize 
and associate to our arms the tomahawk and scalping 
knife of the savage ? to call into civilized alliance the wild 
and inhuman inhabitants of the woods ? to delegate to the 
merciless Indian the defence of disputed rights, and towage 
the horrors of his barbarous war against our brethren ? My 
lords, these enormities cry aloud for redress and punish¬ 
ment. 


164 





WHY BRANT CAME 


During his London visit, Brant had an eminent 
social success. Among those whom he met were 
James Boswell, the biographer of Samuel Johnson, 
and Romney, the artist, to whom he sat for a por¬ 
trait ordered by the Earl of Warwick.* A drawing 
of Brant was made at this time for Boswell, which 
shows him attired as an Indian chief. It was en¬ 
graved for the London Magazine and published with 
an account of Brant’s visit which has been attributed 
to Boswell. 

Everything possible was done in England to please 
Brant, and the Indians who went with him. Colo¬ 
nel Johnson’s account of the expenses connected 
with the visit, as afterward sent to the English 
Government,f contains several interesting items. 
The board-bill for a part of the visit, which extended 
over six months, amounted to ^207. Travelling 
expenses to Windsor and other places were 
There was an apothecary’s bill of £ 9, a jeweller’s 
bill of Jd 4, pistols that cost £1 4, and clothing cost- 
ing ^25. When the Indians sailed for home, 
“ articles laid in for their accommodation on board, 
while returning to New York,” cost ^27 ns, and 
“ other supplies on ship,” £11 10s. 

Returning in May, 1776, starting twelve days 
after Sir William Howe sailed away to take com¬ 
mand in America, Brant reached Staten Island in 
July, and joined the British forces under General 
Tryon. He was stationed for a time in Flatbush, 
where, as the story is told, he one day tasted a crab- 
apple, puckered up his mouth, and exclaimed : “ It 
is as bitter as a Presbyterian.” This prejudice was 

* A reproduction of this portrait appears as the frontispiece of this 
volume. 

t A copy exists among the “Johnson Manuscripts” in the State 
Library. 

i6 5 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


an obvious outgrowth, not only of his Church of 
England associations, but of his dislike of the Bos¬ 
ton “ rebels,” who, in the main, were of Calvin’s 
faith. In November of this year he made his way 
to the first scene of his potent activities in the war 
—the upper Susquehanna Valley. Brant’s manner 
of dress and his personal appearance at this period 
have been described by Captain Snyder : 

He was a likely fellow, of a fierce aspect—tall and rather 
spare—well spoken, and apparently about thirty years of 
age. He wore moccasins, elegantly trimmed with beads, 
leggings and breech-cloth of superfine blue, short green coat, 
with two silver epaulets, and a small laced round hat. By 
his side hung an elegant silver mounted cutlass, and his 
blanket of blue cloth, purposely dropped in the chair on 
which he sat, to display his epaulets, was gorgeously deco¬ 
rated with a border of red. 

Some of the Six Nations had already arrived at 
Oghwaga. Late in the winter of 1775 and 1776, 
while Brant was in London, many of the Mohawks 
returned by way of Fort Niagara* and took up 
head-quarters at Oghwaga. Thus they came to lands 
which were their own. In no sense were they in¬ 
vaders. They came by a route that was not the 
most direct to the frontier settlements, for the key to 
the Mohawk Valley w T as Fort Stanwix, but this was 
in the hands of the Americans. As long as the war 
continued, the Susquehanna route was frequently 
employed. 

By the summer of 1776 a considerable body of Mo¬ 
hawks had reached Oghwaga, and citizens of Cherry 
Valley, in a petition to the Provincial Congress, de- 

* Fort Niagara lay at the mouth of the river Niagara, on a point of 
land jutting out into Lake Ontario. It was already an old fort. 

l66 



WHY BRANT CAME 


dared, on information received “ from missionaries 
and Indian friends,” that the settlers were “ in im¬ 
minent danger of being cut off by the savages.” 
Some thirty of the able-bodied men of Cherry Val¬ 
ley had already joined the patriot army, and Captain 
John Wisner had enlisted twenty men elsewhere in 
the Susquehanna Valley. Thus the inhabitants were 
left “ in a defenceless condition.” Immediate aid 
was asked for, “ as the inhabitants of the Old Eng¬ 
land District and Unadilla are daily flying into our 
settlement, so that we shall immediately in all ap¬ 
pearances have an open, defenceless, and unguarded 
frontier.” Before the summer was ended, Captain 
Winn was sent to Cherry Valley with a company of 
rangers. 


167 


Ill 


Brant’s Arrival 
in 

Unadilla 

1777 

I N November Colonel Guy Johnson, who had 
returned from London with further instructions 
in line with those the Earl of Dartmouth had 
given him the year before, sent word to Germaine 
that, with the approbation of General Howe, he had 
“ lately dispatched in disguise one of my officers 
with Joseph, the Indian chief, who desired the ser¬ 
vice, to get across the country to the Six Na¬ 
tions.” He had hopes of their getting “through 
undiscovered, and of their preparing the Indians to 
co-operate with our military movements.” 

News that Brant had reached Oghwaga went on to 
Cherry Valley, whence it was forwarded to the Pro¬ 
vincial authorities at Kingston, with further word 
that “ ’tis said he is to return to Lord Howe.” The 
alarm spread rapidly throughout the frontier settle¬ 
ments. No doubts could longer be entertained as 
to the sympathies of the Indians, for they had raised 
the British flag at Oghwaga. At Cherry Valley the 
Campbell house, being the largest in the settlement 
and situated on elevated ground, was now fortified. 
An embankment of earth and logs was constructed 
enclosing the dwelling-house, two block-houses, and 
two large barns. The doors of the house were made 

168 







BRANT’S ARRIVAL IN UNADILLA 


double, and strong shutters were put up at the win¬ 
dows. Complaints came in from Oghwaga dur¬ 
ing the winter that the Indians had not been paid 
for certain lands sold by them to George Croghan 
for the benefit of “ the late General Brideport.” * 
They had accepted Croghan’s note, and “ the said 
lands had since been patented to others under the 
great seal of the State of New York.” Th-ey de¬ 
sired that justice might be done and “ their minds 
quieted.” These complaints referred to the griev¬ 
ances of the Oghwaga Indians, mentioned by Brant 
in London. 

Other reports indicated a more hostile spirit, and 
a committee of the Provincial Congress in Febru¬ 
ary, 1777, reported that it was “ necessary to pro¬ 
vide measures for apprehending Joseph Brant.” In 
fact, a resolution was offered that “ it will be of 
great service to the American cause to apprehend 
Joseph Brant; wherefore no cost should be spared 
for that purpose, and that it will be of use to recom¬ 
mend to General Schuyler, Mr. John Harper, of 
the County of Tryon, as the proper person to be 
employed in that service, the said John Harper be¬ 
ing, as this committee are well informed, very inti¬ 
mately acquainted at the Oghwaga Castle, and warm¬ 
ly attached to the American cause.” The report 
was recommitted two days later and another made 

* So printed in the journals of the Provincial Congress, but an obvious 
error for Major-General John Bradstreet, who just before his death 
had obtained an extensive tract from the Oghwaga Indians—some 300,- 
000 acres—lying in part in the western portion of the present town of 
Sidney. General Bradstreet had won his rank in the French and Ind¬ 
ian War. Many years after the Revolution some of these lands were 
claimed by a granddaughter of General Bradstreet, who came over 
from Ireland to prosecute her suit. Although she did not succeed, 
many settlers were ruined in their estates through the expenses caused 
by litigation in which they were defendants.—Brant MSS. in the Draper 
Collection. 

169 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


in its place. Harper and Brant having been school¬ 
mates at Lebanon, it was thought Harper might suc¬ 
ceed in negotiations, and accordingly he departed 
with a friendly letter. The two men had then been 
ten years out of Dr. Wheelock’s school. Both had 
seen something of the world, and nothing had oc¬ 
curred to disturb the friendly relations they had en¬ 
joyed at Lebanon. 

An account of this visit was written by Colonel 
Harper himself. He set out on February 17, 1777, 
with one Indian and one white man, and went “ in 
order to discover the motions of the enemy.” Gould 
says Harper was accompanied as far as the Johnston 
Settlement by a regiment of militia, which he left at 
the settlement to await further orders while he pro¬ 
ceeded to Oghwaga. Harper’s statement that he 
was accompanied only by one Indian and one white 
man, referred only to that part of the journey made 
on Indian territory. Harper says he gave private 
orders to the captains of the several companies un¬ 
der his command, “ to be in readiness at the short¬ 
est notice by me in order to oppose the aforesaid 
Brant and his party.” On arrival at Oghwaga he 
“ found the reports well grounded,” and wrote to 
the Provincial Congress that “ in order to present 
your letter in the most friendly manner, we killed 
an ox for to make a friendly entertainment, which 
had the desired effect.” The letter which Harper 
bore was in part as follows : 

It gives us real concern that George Croghan has abused 
your confidence and defrauded you of money due you on 
his note of hand. He has treated many other subjects of 
this State in the same manner: first running greatly in debt, 
and then privately removing out of its jurisdiction. The 
great council will, however, when the important business 

170 


BRANT'S ARRIVAL IN UNADILLA 


which at present engages all its attention shall admit, en¬ 
deavor to secure your debt. 

Brothers, the great council never will suffer you to be 
defrauded of your lands; but will severely punish all who 
attempt it, and you may safely depend on our protection. 
If a settlement should be attempted, the great council will 
order the intruders to be removed. 

Brothers, we are not unmindful of your wants, or your 
former request for ammunition. We shall always be pleased 
when it is in our power to assist you ; and we now send 
you 100 weight of powder, which you will accept as a proof 
of our sincerity and regard. 

Brothers, rely on our justice, protection, and friendship. 
Farewell. 

Harper understood the Indian language, and be¬ 
fore delivering this letter made an address, using the 
Indian gestures. For the entertainment he painted 
his face, joined in the ceremonies, and wore Indian 
dress. At the close of the feasting, a crown made 
of a belt and decorated with beads was formally 
placed upon his head, signifying that he was entitled 
to a voice in the deliberations of the Six Nations— 
an honor conferred upon only one other white man 
—Sir William Johnson. The Indians said they 
were sorry the frontiersmen had been troubled, and 
left an impression on Harper’s mind that they would 
take no part against the patriots in the conflict with 
England. The Indians at Oghwaga as yet mainly 
sought to secure justice in their land affairs, and it 
is to be remembered also that they told Colonel 
Harper they had been forbidden by Colonel John 
Butler from injuring any of the frontier settlements. 

On his return Colonel Harper encountered, near 
the mouth of Schenevus Creek,* a party of Indians 

* So named after an Indian who lived and hunted on the stream. 

1 7 1 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


to whom he represented himself as a friend. Gain¬ 
ing their confidence, he obtained an admission from 
them that they contemplated the destruction of the 
Johnston Settlement. Colonel Harper, who appears 
to have been returning alone, hastened to his home, 
where he obtained seventeen men and went back to 
surprise the Indians while they were asleep at night. 
He captured ten men and took them to Albany. 
The Rev. Stephen Fenn, for many years a minister 
at Harpersfield, who had the account from- Harper 
himself, has described as follows the capture of these 
men: 

Daylight was beginning to appear in the east. When 
they came to the enemy, they lay in a circle with their 
feet towards the fire in a deep sleep; their arms and all 
their implements of death were stacked up, according to the 
Indian custom, where they lay themselves for the night; 
these the colonel secured by carrying them off a distance 
and laying them down ; then each man, taking his rope in 
hand, placed himself by his fellow; the colonel rapped his 
man softly and said, u come, it is time for men of business 
to be on their way,” and then each one sprang upon his 
man, and, after a most severe struggle, they secured the 
whole number of the enemy. 

This capture was made at the mouth of the creek, 
near where Colliers now is. One of the Indians 
was known as Peter. Harper had traded with him 
before the war. Having spent the winter in New 
York or Canada, Brant did not reach Oghwaga this 
year until a few weeks after Harper returned. He 
then found about 700 Indians assembled at the place, 
and the number was expected soon to increase, as 
in fact it did, after Brant had invaded the Mo¬ 
hawk Valley, and brought down fifty head of cattle. 
It is believed that Brant and Colonel Johnson had 

172 



BRANT’S ARRIVAL IN UNADILLA 


had a disagreement early in the year, and that Brant’s 
coming was the result of it. Stone represents that 
Brant was now advanced to “ his place as the prin¬ 
cipal war chief of the Iroquois Confederacy,” but 
later investigations have shown that his authority 
did not then, or afterward, extend much beyond the 
Mohawks, although on certain occasions he had 
other Indians under his leadership and he was often 
described as “the great captain of the Six Nations.” 

Brant soon found himself in full command at 
Oghwaga, and late in May advanced up the valley, 
accompanied by seventy or eighty warriors, and per¬ 
haps by one hundred. At Unadilla, still remained 
several families. On hearing of Brant’s approach, 
one of the Sliters mounted a horse and rode in haste 
to Cherry Valley to ask for aid. A sergeant and 
forty men returned with him and encamped on 
ground adjoining Mr. Sliter’s home on the Unadilla 
side of the river. On Brant’s arrival, on June 2d, 
Sliter and his five sons, Cornelius, Nicholas, Con¬ 
rad, Peter, and James, were ploughing. Brant de¬ 
manded provisions. If he could not get them 
peaceably he “ must take them by force.” One of 
the Sliters crossed the river, and invited him to the 
Sliter house for a conference. Brant declined, and 
then extended the same hospitality to the white men, 
assuring them they would not be harmed. 

Under this assurance, the settlers finally crossed. 
They at once found themselves surrounded by Ind¬ 
ians. Mr. Johnston spoke a few words favoring 
peace, and urging the red men to take a neutral atti¬ 
tude in the war; but Brant replied : “ I am a man for 
war. I have taken my oath with the King, and will 
not make a treaty with you.” A family tradition is 
that Mr. Johnston in the course of this interview as- 

173 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


sured Brant, with his fist closed, that he was not 
afraid of him. Further efforts for conciliation only 
showed that Brant was not to be moved. Food he 
must and would have, and the settlers had to yield. 
Some eight or ten head of horned cattle, including 
one of the steers Sliter had been ploughing with, some 
sheep, hogs, and a large quantity of provisions were 
turned over to the hungry Indians. When some of 
them secretly took away wearing apparel hanging 
on clothes-lines, Brant was appealed to for protec¬ 
tion. “ Ha ! these Indians,” said he, “ I cannot con¬ 
trol them.” 

Brant closed this interview by requiring the set¬ 
tlers to leave the country or declare themselves for 
the English cause. One statement is that he gave 
them forty-eight hours in which to go away ; another 
that he gave them eight days. “ So long,” said he, 
“ they shall be safe. If any others want to join us 
I will protect them, and they may stay.” Carr, 
Dingman, and Woodcock are said to have concluded 
to remain, but the names Dingman and Woodcock 
are found among those who fought on the side of 
the patriots. The Johnstons, McMasters, and Sli- 
ters at once declined to accept Brant’s conditions, and 
having buried their tools and other articles removed 
to Cherry Valley. In July Mr. Johnston went to 
Kingston with Colonel Harper and made affidavit 
to these occurrences. Three other families at the 
settlement are said to have declared for the patriots, 
but their names have been lost. Of Carr it is 
known that he afterward supplied Brant with pro¬ 
visions, among which probably were products of his 
grist-mill. 

Brant’s stay continued for several days after the 
Johnstons and Sliters had gone. He burned some 

J 74 






BRANT’S ARRIVAL IN UNADILLA 


of the abandoned dwellings, and along the Unadilla 
River extended his hostile sway. Gould estimates 
the population of the settlement before hostilities 
began, at twenty, or one-sixth the entire population 
at that time of the lands out of which was to be cre¬ 
ated Delaware County ; but this estimate could not 
have included the families on the Unadilla side of 
the stream. With the usual allowance of five or six 
souls to a family, the total for both sides of the 
stream would be at least twice that number. 

Brant, being now master of the situation, sent 
word to all settlers that if they did not declare for 
the King, he would seize them and their property. 
A friendly Indian hastened to warn the Ogdens in 
Otego, as well as men at the mouth of the Ouleout, 
and they fled in haste, some to Middlefield, and 
others to Cherry Valley. The father of the Ogdens 
on this journey paddled a canoe up the river while 
his wife and son David drove the oxen and a cow 
on shore. 


*75 


IV 


General Herkimer’s Conference 
with Brant 

J 777 

I N driving out these settlers, Brant had taken 
the first hostile step in the Susquehanna Valley 
in the border warfare of the Revolution. Else¬ 
where in the country, war had now become a famil¬ 
iar calamity. Since the Cherry Valley meeting, held 
just after the Concord fight, events of large import 
had occurred. Washington had arrived in Cam¬ 
bridge as Commander-in-chief, and had forced the 
British to evacuate Boston. The Declaration of 
Independence had been signed. On Long Island 
the American army under Putnam had fought in 
a losing battle. Harlem Heights and White Plains 
had witnessed engagements. Washington had 
crossed the Hudson and the Jersey meadows, and 
had forced the Hessians to surrender at Trenton. 
The battle of Princeton had been fought, and Fred¬ 
eric the Great, old, battle-scarred, and renowned, 
declared one of these movements to be the most 
brilliant he had ever observed, and sent Washing¬ 
ton a sword. 

After the flight of the Susquehanna settlers, sev¬ 
eral Tories proceeded to Unadilla and rendered aid 
to Brant. A road was marked through the wilder¬ 
ness straight to Esopus on the Hudson, now King¬ 
ston—an early foreshadowing of the Esopus turn¬ 
pike ending at the river-bridge in Bainbridge—by 

1 76 







HERKIMER’S CONFERENCE 


which other Tories from Ulster and Orange coun¬ 
ties were expected to come in and reinforce the Ind¬ 
ians. Brant was reported to have declared that he 
would soon be in a position not to fear the ap¬ 
proach of 3,000 men. 

The inhabitants of Harpersfield, believing they 
stood in danger of an early invasion, addressed a let¬ 
ter to the Council of Safety, declaring that “ the late 
irruptions and hostilities committed at Unadilla by 
Joseph Brant with a party of Indians and Tories 
• have so alarmed the well-affected inhabitants of this 
and the neighboring settlements, who are now the 
entire frontier of this State, that, except your hon¬ 
ors doth afford us immediate protection, we shall be 
obliged to leave our settlements to save our lives 
and families.” There was “ not a man on the out¬ 
side of us but such as have taken protection of 
Brant.” 

General Nicholas Herkimer, then the military 
chief of Tryon County, was as well acquainted with 
Brant as Colonel Harper was. His rank was that 
of brigadier, and he had been in command of the 
militia of the county since September of the previ¬ 
ous year. It was decided that he should go to 
Unadilla to confer with the Indians, the decision 
being the result of a conference held by General 
Schuyler, Colonel Van Schaick, and other officers. 
Colonel Van Schaick, with 150 men, went with him 
as far as Cherry Valley, but was unable to proceed 
farther for want of provisions. General Schuyler 
stood ready to follow should a greater force be 
needed.* 

# In Herkimer’s party were the Rev. William Johnston, Colonel 
Johnston, his son, and Lieutenant-Colonel Cox, with others whose names 
are already familiar in this history, or are afterward to become so. In 
the first battalion of militia was Samuel Clyde, a captain, and Henry 

*77 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Herkimer had with him altogether 380 men. 
From Canajoharie the little army proceeded south¬ 
ward along Bowman’s Creek, and thence from Cherry 
Valley to Otsego Lake and the Susquehanna, reach¬ 
ing Unadilla late in June. At a point about four 
miles below the present village of Unadilla a halt 
was made near the railroad bridge that crosses the 
Susquehanna, and a messenger was sent forward to 
Oghwaga to inquire if Brant would come up for a 
friendly conference. Brant sent back an Indian 
who asked sarcastically if all the soldiers with Gen¬ 
eral Herkimer desired to speak with Brant. Her¬ 
kimer, having declared his peaceable intentions, it 
was arranged that Brant should advance. Eight 
days later the Mohawk chief reached the meeting- 
place, with a party of warriors, one statement plac¬ 
ing their numbers at 137 and another at 500.* 

At a place distant two miles west from the meet¬ 
ing-place on the Sidney side, Brant formed his own 
camp, and went forward to arrange for the interview, 
which took place at a point midway between the two 
encampments, each leader having with him a body¬ 
guard of fifty men. Herkimer asked to be allowed 
to proceed farther down the river, but he was told 


Scramling, a second lieutenant. In the third, David McMaster was a 
first lieutenant and afterward captain, while James McMaster was a 
second lieutenant, Jeremiah Swartz, a first lieutenant, Abraham Hodges, 
a captain, and Amos Bennett, an ensign. In the fourth, Hanyost Her¬ 
kimer was a colonel, George F. Hellner, a second lieutenant, and George 
Herkimer, a captain. Of the fifth regiment, John Harper was the colonel 
with Daniel Ogden, a second lieutenant, and Thomas Cully, an ensign. In 
the regiment of Frederick Fischer, Captain David McMaster’s company, 
served as privates William Hanna and Jeremiah Burch; in Captain Yates’s 
company, Jonathan Spencer and Orange Spencer; in Colonel Van 
“Veghten’s” (Vechten’s) regiment, Abimeleck Arnold, and in Colonel 
Willett’s, John, Peter, and Abraham Woodcock. 

* Stone says 500, and Brant told Herkimer he had that number. Prob¬ 
ably 137 was the number who came up to the Fort Stanwix line, the 
others remaining at Oghwaga. 




178 






HERKIMER’S CONFERENCE 


he could not go west of the boundary-line. With 
Brant, besides his body-guard, were his nephew, 
William Johnson, Mollie Brant’s son ; an Indian 
chief; man named Pool; a Tory, named Captain 
Bull, and another person, described as a smart young 
fellow with curly hair, half Indian and half negro. 

A temporary shed, capable of seating 200 per¬ 
sons, was erected for the interview, all the arms hav¬ 
ing been left by both parties in their respective en¬ 
campments. Herkimer’s camp was on the Houck 
flat above the site of Sidney village, near the railroad 
bridge. The meeting-place was on the Bradley 
farm, one-fourth of a mile above the railroad station. 
In this locality still exists one of several knolls as¬ 
sociated with Indian history. Relics have been 
found there, and apple-trees of great size once grew 
upon its summit. The camp of Brant was below 
the village, on the elevated plateau now the farm 
of Milton C. Johnston, a descendant of the dominie. 

A detailed account of the interview exists in an 
affidavit made by Colonel Harper, in July, 1777. 
He says Herkimer “ delivered a speech tending to 
peace with the Indians nations,” to which Brant re¬ 
plied that he was “ thankful the General was so 
peaceably disposed, but as the Indians were hungry, 
they could not speak until they had eaten.” Brant 
and his chiefs then retired to the encampment, to 
refresh themselves. They returned with “ upward 
of 130 warriors—to wit, about 136 or 137.” Brant 
repeated his expression of pleasure over Herkimer’s 
peaceable intentions, but added that “ by their num¬ 
bers, they appeared to be disposed for war,” and if 
that was the case he “ was ready for them.” Stone, 
on the authority of a statement of facts collected 
by L. Ford, says Brant remarked to Herkimer, “ all 

179 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


these men have come on a friendly visit too. They 
all want to see the poor Indian. It is very kind.” 

Brant stated the grounds of Indian complaint, and 
his sincerity cannot be questioned. First, he said the 
Mohawks remaining in the Mohawk Valley were 
confined to one place, and not allowed to pass with 
freedom along the river. He made no specific refer¬ 
ence to the Fort Stanwix treaty, but a clause in the 
deed, as already said, had provided that “ lands oc¬ 
cupied by the Mohawks around their villages, as well 
as by any other nation affected by this cession, may 
effectually remain to them and their posterity.” The 
next item of complaint was that “ their minister, Mr. 
Stuart, had not liberty to pass and repass as formerly, 
so that they could not carry on their worship.” * 

Brant’s next complaint was that forts had been 
erected on Indian territory. General Herkimer 
asked if the Indians would be content, if these com¬ 
plaints were satisfied, to which Brant replied that 
the Indians were in covenant with the King, as their 
fathers had been. They “were steady and not 
changeable as the wind.” After the war, Brant 
wrote to Sir Evan Nepeau, the British Under-Sec¬ 
retary of State: 

When I joined the English in the beginning of the war it 
was purely on account of my forefathers’ engagements with 
the King. I always looked upon those engagements as 
covenants between the King and the Indian nations, and 

* The Rev. John Stuart or Stewart, was a son of an Irish Presbyte¬ 
rian and a native of Harrisburgh. He was a graduate of the University 
of Pennsylvania, had studied for orders in the Church of England and in 
1770 had been ordained. He labored for many years among the Mo¬ 
hawks and made translations into their language of the Gospels and the 
Catechism. Suspected of inciting the Indians against the patriots, his 
house and church had been plundered and he was finally expelled from 
the settlements. After the war he went to Canada, where he laid the 
foundations of the Episcopal Church in the upper province. 

180 





HERKIMER’S CONFERENCE 


as sacred things : therefore I was not to be frightened by 
the threats of the rebels at that time.” 

When the negotiations had reached this point. 
Colonel Cox, one of Herkimer’s officers, in an im-' 
petuous way, remarked that the affair must then be 
regarded as settled. Cox and Brant had long been 
unfriendly and a strained state of feeling still existed. 
Brant became irritated at Cox’s remark and sarcas¬ 
tically asked if he were not “ the son-in-law of old 
George Kloch.” Cox replied testily: “Yes, and 
what is that to you, you d—d Indian.” Thereupon 
Brant gave the signal for his men to return to camp, 
from which they discharged a volley of musketry. 

Brant himself still remained with Herkimer, and 
Herkimer wishing to avoid an engagement, again 
assured him he was for peace. Brant sent a messen¬ 
ger to his men, ordering them to make no further 
demonstration without word from him, and one of 
his orators then delivered an oration declaring that 
the Indians “ were ready to come to action,” this 
statement being made “ in a most threatening post¬ 
ure.” “ I have five hundred warriors,” said Brant, 
“ at my command and can in an instant destroy you 
and your party ; but we are old neighbors, and I will 
not.” And with fine bravado he said it, considering 
i that two-thirds of them were probably twenty-five 
miles down the river—at Oghwaga. Herkimer again 
* assured him he had come on a peaceable mission, 
and wished to secure such Tories and deserters as re¬ 
mained in the valley. Brant insisted that they must 
not be disturbed, as they were subjects of the King.* 

* Another account of this interview exists in the affidavit of John 
Dusler, who was a private in the militia. It was made in 1833, and is 
' as follows: 

“Gen. Herkimer and Col. Cox, after they had fixed upon a time, met 

l8l 



THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


On June 28, Herkimer returned to Cherry Valley, 
and on the following day, Brant, with some spear¬ 
men, put the town of Unadilla in the hands of 
Tories. In their possession and his it long re¬ 
mained. 

That General Herkimer’s peaceful mission would 
fail men who understood the grievances of the Ind¬ 
ians might have anticipated. It does not appear 
that, aside from a few cattle, he gave the Indians 
any presents, whereas the English from early times 
had supplied them with clothing, implements, and 
food. Stone says Brant “ taunted Gen. Herkimer 
with the poverty of the Continental government, 
which he said was not able to give the Indians a 
blanket.” Harper’s version of this is, that Brant 
remarked how General Schuyler at the German 
Flatts conference had made bold threats to the Ind¬ 
ians and “ at the same time was not able to afford 
them the linen to put a shirt on their backs.” 

The statement has been made that Herkimer ar- 

Brant and they had a talk. Neither party was allowed to bring guns to 
the place where they were talking. There was a place covered for them 
to talk under, and a place for a table. There were men stationed out to 
keep guard, and the Indians had seats made of boards under the trees, 
that they sat on, but without arms.” 

“ General Herkimer and Captain Brant talked awhile. Then Colonel 
Cox spoke and said ‘damn him,’and ‘ let him go.’ Brant mentioned j 
this in Indian to his men, who were close by. They all at once sprang 
up and shouted, putting their hands on their mouths as they hallooed, 
and then ran off, and directly they heard them firing off their pieces, 
General Herkimer took Brant by the arm and told him not to mind what 
Cox said : that they were old neighbors, and ought not to be spilling 
each others’ blood, etc. He talked very nice to him. Brant was mode¬ 
rate too. 

“The day before this public meeting, Gen. Herkimer and Brant had 
talked a good deal together about the business. Understood there was 
a treaty made, and that Brant would come back and live on the river 
again. They returned the same way as far as Otego: then Col. 
Billinger’s regiment went home by a place called the Butternuts. They 
were gone in all the time about 17 or 18 days.”—Brant MSS. in the 
Draper Collection. 


182 



HERKIMER’S CONFERENCE 


ranged to have Brant shot during this meeting, 
which, if true, would have put a lasting stain 
upon his name; but Joseph Wagner, one of the 
men whom he is said to have selected for the pur¬ 
pose, told Lossing that the arrangement was one 
of precaution only. On the evening of the first day 
of the conference, after the outbreak due to Colonel 
Cox’s remark, Herkimer decided that, in case Brant 
showed an unmistakable purpose to fight the next 
day, Wagner, and Abraham and George Herkimer 
should seize or kill him. Herkimer’s reasons for 
avoiding battle are not definitely known. Probably 
his instructions restrained him, for he was a brave 
man, as he was soon to show on a famous field. 
The conference closed in an ominous manner, as 
described by Campbell: 

The sun shone forth without a cloud to obscure it, and 
as the rays gilded the tops of the forest trees, or were re¬ 
flected from the waters of the Susquehanna, they imparted 
a rich tint to the wild scenery with which they were sur¬ 
rounded. The echo of the war whoop had scarcely died 
away, before the heavens became black and a violent storm 
of hail and rain obliged each party to withdraw and seek 
the nearest shelter. 

After the interview, Brant remained in the neigh¬ 
borhood of Unadilla, fortifying the place and com¬ 
mitting depredations on settlers who were still there. 
The ten or a dozen cattle which Herkimer gave 
them,Wagner says the Indians “slaughtered incon¬ 
tinently.” But they were soon in want of food, and 
Brant sought assistance from Percifer Carr of Edmes- 
ton, to whom he wrote the following letter on July 6 : 

I understand that you are a friend to government, with 
sum of the settlers at the Butternuts, which is the reason 

183 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


of my applying to you and those people for sum provisions 
and shall be glad you would send me what you can spare, 
no matter what sort, for which you shall be paid, you keep¬ 
ing an account of the whole. From your Friend and 
Humble Serv’nt, 

Joseph Brant. 

In this Unadilla conference Brant acted only for 
the Mohawks. The Iroquois had failed to adopt a 
resolution favoring united action friendly to the 
English. The Oneida chiefs firmly resisted a war 
measure and the organic law of the League required 
unanimous consent. It was agreed, however, that 
each nation should act in its own way. The Senecas 
remained inactive until drawn into the conflict by 
the battle of Oriskany, two months after the Una¬ 
dilla conference. Nor do the Cayugas and Onon- 
dagas appear to have taken any steps favorable to 
the English until after Oriskany, when the whole 
New York frontier was hopelessly plunged into that 
long series of border conflicts by which it was at last 
made desolate. 


184 


V 


The Battle of Oriskany 

1777 


HE Revolution had now reached a critical 



period. In the previous summer, the Brit- 


JL ish, evacuating Boston, had arrived in the 
harbor of New York, with a large fleet of war¬ 
ships and 30,000 men, prepared to enter upon a 
campaign for the capture of the Hudson Valley. 
Early in 1777, a vast enterprise was formed. The 
main army of the British under Burgoyne was to 
descend from Montreal by way of Lake Champlain. 
Another force was to ascend the Hudson valley from 
New York, and a third, composed of Indians, Tories, 
and regulars, was to come on from Montreal under 
Barry St. Leger, by way of Oswego, to the Mohawk 
Valley, thence making its way east and joining Bur¬ 
goyne. It was confidently believed that the capture 
of the Hudson Valley, which formed the key to the 
main conflict in America, could thus be effected. It 
is St. Leger’s part in that memorable campaign 
which directly concerns this history. 

Early in the summer, 400 regular British troops, 
including Hessians, had assembled at Oswego, 
under Sir John Johnson and Colonel Daniel Claus, 
the husband of Sir John’s sister. Meanwhile, 600 
Tories and Canadians, who had come together on 
Carleton Island, near the head of the St. Lawrence, 
proceeded to Oswego. Brant, after writing his 
letter to Percifer Carr, had started for Oswego, ac- 


185 






THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


companied by about 300 Indians, his route being 
along the Unadilla River. 

At Oswego had gathered a few hundred other 
Indians, who, at a council some weeks before, had 
been informed that the King of England was a man 
of great power, that they should never want for 
food and clothing, if they adhered to him, and that 
rum should be “ as plentiful as water in Lake On¬ 
tario.” Each warrior received a suit of clothes, a 
brass kettle,* a gun, a tomahawk, powder and money, 
and a bounty was offered on every white man’s 
scalp they might take. Writing of the Senecas, 
Mary Jemison says, thus richly clad and equipped, 
they became “ full of the fire of war, and anxious to 
encounter their enemies.” 

Oswego was already an ancient rendezvous. 
Here Frontenac had landed in 1792, when he spread 
destruction among the Onondagas and extinguished 
the central Council Fire of the Six Nations. From 
times still earlier it had had importance. Here, in 
1616, Champlain had disembarked to make his 
campaign against the Indians in Central New York, 
and here, in the seventeenth century, the Jesuit 
priests had arrived from the north, to begin their 
work of planting Christianity among the heathen. 
Indeed it is here that the Iroquois themselves are 
believed to have first settled, when they came to 
central New York. 

In 1721, Governor Burnet planted a small trad¬ 
ing settlement at Oswego, as an outpost against the 
French. He met with opposition, but in 1726 was 
able to build a fort. Twenty years afterward Sir 
William Johnson employed Oswego as one of his 

* Some of these kettles were still in use among the Indians fifty years 
afterward. 

l86 









FORT OSWEGO 

(The principal rendezvous of Indians, Tories, and British tegulais. 


























THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY 


trading posts, Oghwaga being perhaps his next 
most important centre. In 1755, General Shirley 
enlarged and strengthened the fort, but a year later 
it was captured by Montcalm, dismantled and laid in 
ruins. Here, in 1759, the fortress having been re¬ 
stored, were gathered the English forces which went 
westward, and gained possession of Fort Niagara. 

During the Revolution Fort Oswego underwent 
considerable repairs. It never became a winter head¬ 
quarters, however, being found more serviceable as 
a rendezvous. Niagara was the place in which the 
Indians and many Tories spent the winter, and 
Niagara was the usual destination of the prisoners 
whom they captured on the frontier. At Oswego, 
until the last scene of the war, Indians, Tories, and 
regular troops were now to assemble for descents 
upon a defenceless frontier, easily reached by follow¬ 
ing the small lakes and rivers which there discharge 
their waters into Lake Ontario. 

About 700 Indians were added to the British 
force in 1777 , St. Leger taking command of the 
whole body, except the Indians whom Brant com¬ 
manded, the army now numbering 1,700 men, and 
St. Leger effecting its final organization at Oswego. 
The Indians were assured that if they would pro¬ 
ceed with St. Leger to Fort Schuyler,* they might 
sit down and smoke their pipes while they saw the 
British “ whip the Rebels.” Mary Jemison says the 

* Formerly Fort Stanwix, which had been built in i 75 ^> during the 
French War, and was named after General Stanwix, a British officer. 
General Schuyler in 1776, at the suggestion of Washington, had re¬ 
paired and strengthened it, and it had been renamed Fort Schuyler. 
Powder horns which soldiers carved during that summer in the fort 
bear this new name. Among the English, however, the fort was still called 
after its old name. Much confusion has resulted, and this has been 
emphasized by the fact that after the war, the old name of Fort Stanwix 
was restored. 

187 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Senecas followed St. Leger to a man, but, instead of 
smoking pipes and looking on, they “ were obliged 
to fight for their lives, and in the battle were com¬ 
pletely beaten.” This conflict was Oriskany,* 
fought on August 6th. 

Burgoyne’s victorious march down the Cham¬ 
plain Valley and his easy capture of Fort Ticonder- 
oga, were already known to St. Leger when, with his 
motley band, he set out for Fort Schuyler, by way 
of Oneida Lake. He confidently believed that the 
fort would capitulate. But it now had a strong garri¬ 
son of 750 men, under Colonel Peter Gansevoort, 
with Colonel Marinus Willett second in command. 
It had provisions enough for six weeks, with a short 
supply of ammunition for cannon, though enough 
for the small arms. But it had no flag. 

In June of this year, Congress had formally 
adopted the Stars and Stripes. Betsy Ross, that 
summer in Philadelphia, had made the first speci¬ 
men of the new American banner, but none had yet 
reached this fort on the western frontier. A rude 
specimen was therefore constructed in the fort, one 
tradition being, that the red material came from a 
flannel shirt, the white from a cotton shirt, and the 
blue from the petticoat of a soldier’s wife. Above 
the ramparts this flag was hoisted, and it seems to 
be the first instance in history in which the Stars 
and Stripes were ever raised in the face of an enemy. 

St. Leger invested Fort Schuyler on August 3d. 
A flag of truce was at once sent in, with a manifesto 
offering protection to all who might submit. The 
offer having met with a prompt refusal, the siege 
was begun on the following day, Indians completely 
surrounding the fort while concealed in the adjacent 

* The meaning of this word, according to Morgan, is nettles. 

188 


THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY 


woods. A messenger was despatched to Burgoyne, 
announcing St. Leger’s arrival; St. Leger being in 
complete ignorance of the formidable obstacles that 
were obstructing that general’s progress. Burgoyne 
had found himself with a supply of stores wholly 
inadequate, and not more than one-third of his 
horses had been able to follow him from Canada. 
H is advance had been completely blocked. Seek¬ 
ing relief, he sent out the expedition to Bennington 
so disastrously overwhelmed on August 16th by 
General John Stark. 

The people of Try on County early in the sum¬ 
mer had learned of the coming of St. Leger, through 
Thomas Spencer, the Cherry Valley orator, who 
brought the news from Canada, after having gone 
there to observe the movements of the enemy. On 
hearing that St. Leger had reached Oswego, General 
Nicholas Herkimer issued a proclamation calling 
upon the frontiersmen to organize in defence of their 
homes. Men between sixteen and sixty years of 
age were urged to enter the service, while those 
above sixty were directed to defend the women and 
children. Herkimer gathered a force of between 
800 and 1,000 men, a part of whom had gone with 
him to Unadilla to meet Brant. 

German Flatts was now made the place of rendez¬ 
vous for the militia, and so soon as the fort was in¬ 
vested, General Herkimer set out for its relief. He 
went into camp on August 5th, about eight miles 
east of it. Here, some of the officers grew impatient 
at his delay. They urged an immediate advance, and 
accused Herkimer of disloyalty and cowardice. He 
remonstrated with them, and pointed out the need 
for reinforcements, but at last was obliged to yield. 
He gave the order to advance, only to find his army 

189 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


at the mercy of an ambuscade, with Brant leading 
the Indians and Colonel Butler his own Rangers. 
This surprise occurred at a ravine, semi-circular in 
form, and marshy at the bottom, which crossed the 
road Herkimer had to follow. Stone has best de¬ 
scribed the scene of wild slaughter that followed : 

Being thrown into irretrievable disorder by the sudden¬ 
ness of the surprise and the destructiveness of the fire, 
which was close and brisk from every side, the division 
was for a time threatened with annihilation. At every op¬ 
portunity the savages, concealed behind the trunks of trees, 
darted forward with knife and tomahawk to insure the de¬ 
struction of those who fell; and many and fierce were the 
conflicts that ensued hand to hand. The veteran Herki¬ 
mer fell, wounded, in the early part of the action—a mus¬ 
ket-ball having passed through and killed his horse, and 
shattered his own leg just below the knee. The General 
was placed upon his saddle, however, against the trunk of a 
tree for his support, and thus continued to order the battle. 
Colonel Cox, and Captains Davis and Van Sluyck, were 
severally killed near the commencement of the engagement; 
and the slaughter of their broken ranks, from the rifles of 
the Tories and the spears and tomahawks of the Indians 
was dreadful. But even in this deplorable situation the 
wounded General, his men dropping like leaves around 
him, and the forest resounding with the horrid yells of the 
savages, ringing high and wild over the din of battle, be¬ 
haved with the most perfect composure. 

The action had lasted about forty-five minutes in great 
disorder, before the Provincials formed themselves into 
circles in order to repel the attacks of the enemy, who were 
concentrating and closing in upon them from all sides. 
From this moment the resistance of the Provincials was 
more effective, and the enemy attempted to charge with 
the bayonet. The firing ceased for a time, except the 
scattering discharges of musketry from the Indians; and as 
the bayonets crossed the contest became a death-struggle, 

190 


THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY 


hand to hand and foot to foot. Never, however, did brave 
men stand a charge with more dauntless courage, and the 
enemy, for the moment, seemed to recoil—just at the in¬ 
stant when the work of death was arrested by a heavy 
shower of rain which suddenly broke upon the combatants 
with great fury. 

During this suspension of the battle, both parties had time 
to look about, and make such new dispositions as they 
pleased for attack and defence on renewing the murderous 
conflict. In the early part of the battle, the Indians, when¬ 
ever they saw a gun fired by a militia-man from behind a 
tree, rushed upon and tomahawked him before he could re¬ 
load. In order to counteract this mode of warfare, two 
men were stationed behind a single tree, one only to fire at 
a time—the other reserving his fire until the Indians ran 
up as before. The fight was presently renewed and by 
the new arrangement, and the cool execution done by the 
fire of the militia forming the main circle, the Indians were 
made to suffer severely ; so much so that they began to give 
way, when Major Watts came up with a reinforcement, 
consisting of another detachment of Johnson’s Greens. 
These men were mostly loyalists who had fled from Try- 
on County, now returned in arms against their former 
neighbors. 

As no quarrels are so bitter as those of families, so no 
wars are so cruel and passionate as those called civil. 
Many of the Provincials and Greens were known to each 
other; and as they advanced so near as to afford opportu¬ 
nities of mutual recognition, the contest became, if possible, 
more of a death-struggle than before. Mutual resentment 
and feeling of hate raged in their bosoms. The Provin¬ 
cials fired upon them as they advanced, and then, springing 
like chafed tigers from their covers, attacked them with 
their bayonets and the butts of their muskets, or both par¬ 
ties, in closer contact, throttled each other and drew their 
knives, stabbing, and sometimes literally dying in one an¬ 
other’s embrace. 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


The parties once more rushed upon each other with 
bayonet and spear, grappling and fighting with terrible fury; 
while the shattering of shafts and the clashing of steel, 
mingled with every dread sound of war and death, and the 
savage yells, more hideous than all, presented a scene which 
can be more easily imagined than described. 

Such a conflict as this could not be continued long; and 
the Indians, perceiving with what ardor the Provincials 
maintained the fight, and finding their own numbers sadly 
diminished, now raised the retreating cry of “ Oonah ! ” 
and fled in every direction, under the shouts and hurrahs 
of the surviving Provincials and a shower of bullets. Find¬ 
ing, moreover, from the firing at the fort that their pres¬ 
ence was necessary elsewhere, the Greens and Rangers 
now retreated precipitately, leaving the victorious militia of 
Tryon County masters of the field. 

Oriskany, essentially an accident of war, was a 
place of frightful slaughter, considering the number 
engaged, 200 Americans being killed, and as many 
more made prisoners. General Herkimer died after¬ 
ward from his wounds, and among the others killed, 
was Thomas Spencer. Colonel Samuel Campbell, 
of Cherry Valley, succeeded Herkimer in command. 
It was when their ammunition gave out that the 
combatants engaged at close quarters in that wild 
struggle on marshy ground, with muskets, bayonets, 
knives, and tomahawks. The Indians lost about 
100 men, of whom thirty-six were Senecas. As 
many more Tories, and British regulars were slain. 
Mary Jemison describes the Senecas as returning 
home in excessive mourning, expressed by “ the 
most doleful yells, shrieks, and howlings and by 
inimitable gesticulations.” 

It is interesting to recall here, that had General 
Herkimer chosen to fight at Unadilla, he could have 
won with seeming ease. Thus the slaughter at 

192 


THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY 


Oriskany might have been averted. In October, 
Brant declared in a letter that at Unadilla he had only 
aoo available warriors and not twenty pounds of 
powder, which was probably true; his assertion to 
Herkimer that he had 500 men, having been made 
for effect. 

Meanwhile, during the battle, Colonel Willett 
had led a sortie from the fort with 250 men, giving 
such a surprise to Sir John Johnson, that his men 
were put to flight, and the Indians retreated to the 
woods. While Willett held possession of the camp 
of the enemy, seven wagons were obtained from the 
fort and three trips were necessary to carry back 
into it the rich spoils Willett captured, which in¬ 
cluded all the papers of the officers and five British 
standards. Not a man was lost in this enterprise. 
The British flags were soon hoisted over the fort, 
upsidedown, below that rude specimen of the Stars 
and Stripes. 

St. Leger soon renewed the siege. On August 
10th, Colonel Willett, in the hope of raising an¬ 
other force to relieve the garrison, emerged from the 
fort at night, with one other officer. The two men 
tramped through the woods some forty miles east¬ 
ward—a dangerous undertaking, with Indians lurk¬ 
ing about, but successfully executed, under great 
hardships. They were armed only with a spear, and 
had no provisions except crackers and cheese, and 
a canteen of spirits. When their supplies were ex- 

J hausted, they lived on berries. Having reached 
German Flatts, Colonel Willett on horseback rode 
to Albany, returning with Arnold to German Flatts, 
where the troops assembled to march for relief of 
the fort. 

■ Arnold’s coming alarmed St. Leger. That ac- 

*93 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 






complished general had contrived to get false news 
to the enemy, indicating that the force approaching 
was much larger than it really was. This resulted, 
on August 22 d, in a hasty retreat of the motley 
band which had been storming the walls of this wil¬ 
derness fortress. They fled with so much haste that 
much of their baggage and ammunition was left 
behind, all of which gave great astonishment to 
Colonel Gansevoort and his men in the fort, who 
knew nothing of the cause for the strange retreat 
they witnessed from its ramparts. 

Such was Oriskany ; a battle which Horatio Sey¬ 
mour and others have ranked as the decisive con¬ 
flict of the Revolution. As Bennington made sup¬ 
plies impossible for Burgoyne, so did Oriskany 
dash to the ground his hopes of reinforcements. 
Meanwhile the Americans holding Burgoyne in 
check added constantly to their numbers until they 
surpassed his forces three to one, and after an inef¬ 
fectual attempt to break through their lines, where 
Arnold once more distinguished himself, Burgoyne 
was forced to surrender. 

But for this frontier the battle of Oriskany had a 
more personal and deeper significance. The British 
had now definitely secured the co-operation of the 
Indians in furthering their ambition to obtain control 
of the Hudson Valley. No student of the local his¬ 
tory that followed can fail to observe how, in Oris¬ 
kany, was begun that border fighting which, for the 
next five years, desolated the Susquehanna, Dela¬ 
ware, Schoharie, and Mohawk Valleys. Out of 
Oriskany, as effects from causes, came the burning 
of Springfield and German Flatts, the massacres of 
Wyoming and Cherry Valley, the expeditions of 
Colonel William Butler, General John Sullivan and 

194 





THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY 


Sir John Johnson; the battles of Minisink, Johns¬ 
town and Klock’s Field, by which not alone were 
the homes of frontiersmen made desolate, but in 
greater degree those of the Indians themselves. 

Heretofore the Indians in large part had shown 
their intentions to be, if not those of perfect peace, 
certainly not those of aggressive and initiatory war¬ 
fare. When the Senecas returned howling and 
shrieking to their homes the premonitions of war 
on the settlements had been heard. Tryon Coun¬ 
ty, whose militiamen were recruited from the set¬ 
tlers, was to pay the penalty of the Indian losses. 
Back to Oghwaga and the Mohawk went the Iro¬ 
quois, and for all the years that the war lasted it was 
now Indians and now white men who burned vil¬ 
lages, destroyed cattle and food, captured prisoners 
and killed men and women. We have been taught 
to hold the red man’s deeds in horror as unpro¬ 
voked atrocities, but as this narrative goes forward 
it will be an act of justice to remember the remarks 
of Stone and Campbell that no son of the forest 
has ever written a history of the Border Wars. In 
all Stone’s stately octavos is no more impressive 
passage than the one in which he cites iEsop’s fable 
of the lion and the forester standing before a piece 
of sculpture representing a man triumphant over a 
lion. With a lion for sculptor the relative positions 
of man and beast would certainly have been re¬ 
versed. And so with a Mohawk Indian for his¬ 
torian of the Border Wars. We should have had 
different chronicles. 

In this warfare personal revenge prompted the 
red man, but not the British. The Rangers of 
Colonel Butler, the Royal Greens of Sir John 
Johnson, the regulars, Yagers, and Tories who co- 

195 















THE BATTLE OE ORISKANY 


which moved the aged Frederic the Great to send 
him a sword. 

In this frontier warfare, as in the campaign of 
Burgoyne, the British sought to weaken Washing¬ 
ton from the rear. With the Indians for allies after 
Jriskany, their aim each summer thenceforth was 
to attract away from the Hudson Valley forces sta¬ 
tioned for its defence. In that lay the purpose of 
♦he expeditions to Wyoming and Clierry Valley, 
'he forces sent out to meet General Sullivan and 
the campaigns that, in the last year but one of the 
r ar lighted conflagrations throughout the Mohawk 
and Schoharie valleys, and struck terror to the 
hearts of their defenceless people. 


197 


PART V 


Overthrow of the Frontier 

1777-1778 






I 


Alarm Among the 
Settlements 

1777-1778 

S CARCELY had the noise of battle died away 
from Oriskany and Fort Schuyler, when fresh 
invasions from Indians and Tories occurred. 
Bands of them speedily returned to the Susque¬ 
hanna Valley, invaded the Delaware settlements 
from Oghwaga and made depredations in Schoharie. 
Late in August a committee complained from Scho¬ 
harie to the Council of Safety, that while they had 
long foreseen the storm, and made repeated requests 
for aid, they had “ received nothing in return but 
false epistles, neglect and contempt.” The troops 
promised, had been “ sent another way,” and they 
had been “ mocked with inconsistent letters, request¬ 
ing us to defend ourselves, at a time when almost all 
the neighboring settlements and the greater part of 
our own inhabitants were actually in arms against 
us.” 

They had not received one man for assistance, 
“ except a small party of the light-horse, which 
Colonel Harper procured at the risk of his life, and 
six Frenchmen, raised at his own expense.” When 
Colonel Harper went out to enlist men for service, 
he found they had been so intimidated by the 
Tories that he was unable to enlist any considerable 
body. At Harpersfield the people had fallen into 
the hands of a Tory named McDonald, “who 

201 






THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


swore them not to take up arms against the king.” 
They declared that “ one-half of this valuable settle¬ 
ment of Schoharie lies in ruins and desolation, our 
houses plundered, our cattle destroyed, and our well- 
affected inhabitants taken prisoners and sworn not 
to discover the enemies’ plots or proceedings.” The 
committee added that Indians and Tories were 
lurking in the woods, waiting for another reinforce¬ 
ment, while the harvest, “ the best in the memory 
of man,” was “ lying rotting in the fields,” and 
they saw nothing but utter destruction before them.* 

On September ioth, a militia force of 500 men 
was promised, but it seems not to have done any 
service. In October it was known that Oswego 
had become a rendezvous for Indians, under Brant, 
and for Tories and regulars under Colonel Butler, 
and Colonel Guy Carleton. Later reports said their 
numbers were rapidly increasing. Finally it was 
asserted that 6,000 men had been assembled there. 
New attacks were anticipated, and pathetic appeals 
were again made. 

Not a patriot now remained in Unadilla. Indians 
were fortifying the place. Eastward along the Sus¬ 
quehanna, the whole country was deserted, except 
that Harpersfield had become a recognized settle¬ 
ment of Tories. To Unadilla meanwhile went 
deserters from the American army, and runaway 
negroes. By the middle of November, Unadilla 
had become a haunt of some of the worst elements 
brought into activity by the Border Wars. 

The size of the force of white men and Indians at 
Oswego indicated the energy with which was to 
be renewed the campaign St. Leger had lost. As 
St. Leger had been expected to weaken the Ameri- 

* Clinton Papers, vol. ii. 

202 


ALARM AMONG SETTLEMENTS 


can forces opposing Burgoyne, so now was Colonel 
Butler * to attract away from the Hudson the men 
needed for its defence. Sir Henry Clinton, Howe’s 
successor in the British command, abandoned Phila¬ 
delphia in the spring and started for New York. 
Washington followed him, turning defeat into vic¬ 
tory at Monmouth, and then made his way north¬ 
ward to the Highlands of the Hudson. While 
Washington held Clinton in check, Tories and 
Indians were to harass the frontier. All through 
the summer of 1778, this work went on successfully, 
meeting with no effective opposition. Cobleskill, 
Springfield, and Wyoming, tell the story of t-he 
summer’s work. It ended in November with 
the crowning tragedy of the New York frontier— 
the massacre of Cherry Valley. 

But we must first recall certain earlier events. 
When the winter of 1777-78 came on, the main 
body of Indians and Tories had retired from Oswe¬ 
go to Niagara, but a considerable number of Indians 
remained to spend that season in Unadilla and 
Oghwaga. William Johnston, Jr., went down from 
Cherry Valley in January as a spy, and learned that 
the Indian chiefs had received from Niagara letters 
of instruction, and that another messenger had gone 
with letters to the English in New York. Thus 
was established close connection with the central 
enterprise of the war—the capture of the Hudson 

* Butler commanded a body of irregular troops known as Butler’s 
Rangers, recruited from Tories and others who sought refuge at 
Oswego. Butler’s Rangers played a conspicuous part in all the Border 
Wars. In 1778 barracks were erected for them opposite Fort Niagara, 
where has since grown up the small village known as Niagara-on-the- 
Lake. On the outskirts of this village, still stands the guard-house of 
Butler’s Rangers. A mile distant, is the farm Butler lived on, after the 
war, and in the soil of which he lies buried. On the walls of the village 
church (St. Mark’s) a laudatory tablet has been raised to Butler’s 
memory. 


203 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Valley. Colonel Butler, during the winter, entered 
into a new treaty with the Indians, making presents, 
“andin particular 300 of Burgoyne’s silver medals 
to their young warriors.” 

Early in this period, after the Rev. William John¬ 
ston had in vain asked for troops to be sent to 
Cherry Valley, a petition, signed by about sixty citi¬ 
zens of that place, was sent to Governor Clinton as 
follows: 

We have repeated information, and doubt not but it’s 
good authority, of the preparations Tories and Indians are 
making at Yunadilla and Augquaga, where they have re¬ 
course to the whole Old England District for their sup¬ 
porters. Brant and his warriors are preparing to pay us a 
visit, which we fear will be shortly, as it is but about forty 
miles march for them. Some families are leaving their 
farms and moving down into the country, and we have 
great reason to fear it will be the case with us or fall a prey 
to their savage barbarities. 

A committee from Tryon County, about the same 
time, reported to the Council of Safety : 

We have lately had a scouting party to Unadilla, who 
gave us information that a number of disaffected people 
have collected at that place and from appearances they are 
making preparations for some expeditions. Some say it is 
meditated against the frontier of Ulster County, while 
others say it is intended against this county. Unadilla is a 
receptacle for all desertions from the army, runaway negroes, 
and other bad people. We therefore judge it extremely 
necessary to have that nest entirely eradicated, and until 
that is done, we can never enjoy our possessions in peace, 
for these villains carry off all the cattle they can find besides 
robbing the well affected inhabitants. 

These warnings and others coming from diverse 
sources, and amply endorsed by General Philip 

204 




ALARM AMONG SETTLEMENTS 


Schuyler, continued well into the summer of 1778. 
Two friendly Indians had arrived in Cherry Valley 
in March, urging the inhabitants to abandon the 
place as “ the enemy will be very soon in these 
parts.” In the same month Josiah Parke made 
affidavit that in February a Tuscarora Indian had 
told him the Tories and Indians meant “to strike 
first on the Susquehanna near Wyoming and take 
that place with 4,000 men, and then come through 
to the North River.” Thus early had the enemy 
planned the most awful tragedy in all the frontier war¬ 
fare—planned in February, a work that was not done 
until July; while on May 25th, General Schuyler 
was informed that Brant was to collect his friends 
upon the Susquehanna and attack Cherry Valley.* 
Some hope of securing Indian neutrality still re¬ 
mained. At a council held on March 9th at 
Johnstown, and attended by more than 700 Ind¬ 
ians, an attempt was made to quiet them. The 
Senecas alone failed to attend. With Oriskany so 
recent and bloody a memory, it was strange indeed 
that any Mohawks or Cayugas should have come. 
The Senecas sent a communication expressing their 
surprise (a surprise which is quite comprehensible) 
that “while our tomahawks were sticking in their 
heads, their wounds bleeding and their eyes stream¬ 
ing with tears for the loss of their friends at Oris¬ 
kany, the Commissioners should think of inviting 
us to a treaty.” Stone notes as the result of the 
council that the commissioners were persuaded that 
from the Senecas, Cayugas, and nearly all the Mo¬ 
hawks, “ nothing but revenge for their lost friends 
and tarnished glory at Oriskany and Fort Schuyler 
was to be anticipated.” 

* Clinton Papers, vol. ii. 

205 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Lafayette had attended this council and at his in¬ 
stance, forts were now set up in Cherry Valley and 
on the Schoharie River. The Council of Safety 
undertook to raise a company under Colonel 
Harper, who was to have $1,000 advanced for his 
expenses. He was to be “ cautious of making any 
attacks on the savages or pursuing any measures 
that would bring on an Indian war unless absolute¬ 
ly necessary for the defence of the inhabitants.” 


ao6 



II 


Cobleskill, Springfield 
and 

Wyoming 

1778 

E ARLY in the year Brant had reached Ogh- 
waga and Unadilla. His main purpose was 
not to kill frontiersmen, but to obtain food— 
food for his own men and for those of Butler, who 
expected soon to follow him into the Susquehanna 
Valley, his destination being Wyoming. Brant also 
aimed to collect men who as Tories would serve 
under Butler, and was “ not to fight or make any 
alarm if possible to avoid it.” From Oghwaga he 
went first into the Delaware Valley * where he got 
about seventy head of cattle and some horses, while 
sixty or seventy inhabitants joined his forces and re¬ 
turned with him to Oghwaga. For Brant’s assistance 
Butler had sent forward to Unadilla a man named 
John Young, and to Oghwaga one named McGin¬ 
nis, a former Susquehanna settler who had turned 
Tory. 

On May 30th, Brant reached the settlement of 
Cobleskill j~ with 300 or 400 men. After burning 
nine houses, he was attacked by some Continental 
troops, a detachment from Colonel Ichabod Alden’s 

* Affidavit Barnabas Kelly, Clinton Papers, vol. iii. 
t The stream from which this town derives its name was known to 
the Indians as Ascalege. 


207 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


regiment, which was going out to command the 
Cherry Valley fort, and by militiamen from Scho¬ 
harie. Brant forced the attacking party to retreat, 
after he had killed sixteen of them, and five or six 
others had perished in the houses which he burned. 
One of the killed was Captain Patrick and an¬ 
other Lieutenant Maynard. Abraham Wempel, a 
few days later, buried the dead and reported that 
“ horses, cows, sheep, etc., lay dead all over the 
fields.” The settlers escaped to Schoharie, but the 
Indians took away the cattle and all the provisions. 
On June 5th Patrick’s clothing, says McKendry, 
was “sold at vendue in Albany: amount JC6 4, 
15J.” The Cobleskill settlement lay on the creek 
of that name, ten miles west of Schoharie, and com¬ 
prised nineteen families, from whom a small com¬ 
pany of militia had been organized and provided 
with arms and ammunition. 

Brant went on to Cherry Valley. From one of 
the hills back of the Campbell house he looked 
down on the place to observe its condition. He 
saw that the house was surrounded by an embank¬ 
ment of logs and earth and that on the green were 
soldiers. These soldiers, however, were small boys 
parading with paper caps and wooden swords. 
Brant took them for grown men and is understood 
to have abandoned his intended attack in conse¬ 
quence of his discovery. Before leaving the neigh¬ 
borhood he caused the death of one man, an old 
friend of his, Lieutenant Matthew Wormwood,* who 
had come over with a message from the Mohawk 
Valley. Seeing him ride past, Brant commanded 
him to halt, but Wormwood rode on, and one of 
Brant’s men shot him, ignorant of his identity. 

* Also written Warmouth. 

208 


COBLESKILL AND SPRINGFIELD 


During this visit Brant approached a boy named 
William McKown, aged about fourteen, who was 
working alone in a hay-field. The boy raised his 
rake in defence, but Brant quietly remarked : “ Do 
not be afraid, young man; I shall not hurt you,” 
and then made several inquiries, in the course of 
which he learned the boy’s name. “ You are a son 
of Mr. McKown who lives in the north-east part 
of the town, I suppose,” said he. “ I know your 
father very well, and a fine fellow he is too.” This 
friendly manner emboldened the boy to inquire the 
Indian’s name. After a little hesitation came the 
reply : “My name is Brant.” “ What! Captain 
Brant ? ” asked the startled boy. With a smile 
lighting up his dark face, Brant answered, calmly : 
“ No ; I am a cousin of his.” This story has come 
down through Campbell from the lips of both Mc¬ 
Kown and Grant. 

Rapidly spread the sense of terror which these 
events caused. Colonel Jacob Klock reported to 
Governor Clinton that “ Unadilla has always been, 
and still continues to be, a common receptacle for all 
rascally Tories and runaway negroes.” Relief was 
prayed for, as “ otherwise we shall be in one con¬ 
tinued alarm all the season.” Colonel Samuel Clyde, 
of Cherry Valley, on June 5th, wrote to General 
Stark, the hero of Bennington, now commanding at 
Albany, sending the letter by Colonel Harper : 

The inhabitants of Bowmans Creek have left their inhabi¬ 
tations ; Springfield likewise ; and the people of Newtown 
1 Martin [now called Middlefield] have come into our set¬ 
tlement, and joined with us to make a stand against the 
enemy. They have brought their cattle with them, and 
i: families, so that in all we may reckon, on a moderate com¬ 
putation, there is 600 or 700 head of cattle, and they all 

209 



THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


feeding within the circumference of about ^ of a mile, 
which must inevitably fall into the hands of the enemy, if 
some immediate help is not sent us ; and our wives and 
children massacred by a savage enemy. We have made the 
utmost efforts to stand the enemy and protect our lives and 
liberty; but cannot stand it much longer, without very 
timely assistance; and if we should be obliged to give up 
this settlement, consider what a quantity of provision is 
here for the enemy ; which would enable them to harass 
the other settlements continually, as they would have no 
provisions to look for. 

Brant lies but about 20 miles from us upon Charlotte 
River, and as one party comes in, the other goes out, to the 
destruction of the smaller settlements. The militia that 
are with us are quite out of patience; and we are afraid 
they will leave us; and were we to be attacked in the 
place where we have made a stand—sorry we are to think 
so, but more to say it—there are not over 30 men that 
would stand their ground. This, Sir, is our present situa¬ 
tion. 

On June 15th, James Dean, the Indian com¬ 
missioner, reported to General Schuyler, that Colonel 
Butler had “ collected a considerable party of Indians 
of various tribes, with which, as he gives out, he is 
determined to join Joseph Brant upon the frontier 
of this country. It is supposed he is by this time as 
far on his way as Oghwaga.” Citizens of Schenec¬ 
tady, on June 15th, wrote to Governor Clinton : 

Your Excellency may depend on it, that it is no sham to 
frighten the people, but a thing in real existence, for the 
people are flying and crowding into this town in great num¬ 
bers, and by the best information the enemy are really round 
about there, and are determined to destroy, and burn up that 
whole county, and unless soon relieved, we undoubtedly be¬ 
lieve they will effect it, and the loss that will arise therefrom 
to the unhappy individuals of that part of the country will be 

210 


COBLESKILL AND SPRINGFIELD 


nothing in comparison to the loss of the United States, as it 
is one of our principal wheat countrys. 

Soon were these prophecies fulfilled. On June 
18th, Brant reached Springfield and destroyed it. 
He then destroyed Andrustown, and other settle¬ 
ments near Otsego Lake. Colonel Klock sent the 
following report to Governor Clinton : 

Houses, barns, even wagons, ploughs and the hay cocks 
in the meadows at Springfield were laid in ashes. Four¬ 
teen men were carried away prisoners, and eight killed. 
All the provisions were taken on horses, and carried off. 
Two hundred creatures (horses and chiefly cattle) were 
driven down the Susquehanna. Last Sunday morning the 
enemy set off" with this booty from the house of one Tun- 
nicliff. All this has been done while the garrison at Cherry 
Valley did not know anything about an enemy; though 
Springfield is not above four miles distant from the said 
place. 

Several people, who have been prisoners and did escape, 
affirm that Brant was the commander, and that his party 
consists of about five hundred. So much is certain, that 
his number encreaseth daily; many very lately did run off, 
moved by disaffection; others join him, moved by fear, and 
several are forced to take up arms against us, or to swear 
allegiance to the King of Britain. We are informed and 
Brant boasted openly, that he will be joined at Unadilla by 
Butler, and that within eight days he will return and lay the 
whole county waste. The dreadful sight of Springfield 
and Andrustown, heightened with these reports, puts the 
people of the county into the greatest consternation ; they 
speak of nothing but flying off. Harvest time is at hand, 
and no prospect of a speedy assistance. The officers and 
the principal inhabitants meet with the greatest difficulties, 
to persuade the people to stand out only but a few days, 
until it should be in the power of the government to send 
us relief.* 

* Clinton Papers, vol. iii. 

21 I 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


After the burning of Springfield, Captain Robert 
McKean with five men was sent out from Cherry 
Valley to observe Brant. They learned from Mr. 
Sleeper of Factory Creek, that Brant had been at 
his house the same day with fifty men. McKean 
concluded to abandon his intention of going on to 
Unadilla, but he left Brant a note inviting him to 
Cherry Valley and promising to “ change him from 
a Brant to a goose.” Brant was inclined to accept 
this invitation, but on learning that McKean had 
returned to arouse the settlement, he abandoned his 
purpose. 

One week after these events Barnabas Kelly, who 
had lived at a settlement called Brooks’s on the 
Butternut Creek, reached Henry Herkimer’s farm 
at the foot of Schuyler’s Lake and there joined a 
scout from German Flatts with whom he returned 
to the latter place where he made a statement under 
oath in which appears the following: * 

Soon after the Battle at Cobus Kill, he the said Kelly, 
was at the Butter nut. About 40 white men and two 
Indians bought about 17 head of horned cattle of Brooks, 
Garrett, Johnson & Knapp, and about seven hundred 
weight of cheese for which they gave them notes upon 
Butler. Of Capt. Service, Sir John Johnson’s uncle, they 
got about 40 or 50 scipple of flour, and he says Capt. Ser¬ 
vice sent word to them, that they should come and fetch 
it. One Carr who lives at Major Edmeston’s sent them 
word that he had 40 skipple of corn for them, but whether 
they got it or not he did not learn. 

And further he heard that Joseph Brant had been with 
Butler at Skeemonk,f about two days’ journey from Ocqua- 
goe, since the battle at Cobus Kill, to see what kept But¬ 
ler so long behind, and it was supposed to be occasioned 

* Clinton Papers, vol. iii. 

212 


f Chemung. 


COBLESKILL AND SPRINGFIELD 


by the country’s being alarmed ; and he further declareth, 
that he heard John Young at the Butter nut, read a proc¬ 
lamation from Butler, desiring all the friends to govern¬ 
ment to join him, and to bring in all their cattle together 
with their wives and families, and they should be kindly 
received by the said Butler. 

After the battle at Cobus Kill Brant heard that the militia 
was to slay him at Youghams* on the Susquehanna, on 
which Brant took 5 Indians with him, and went to Cherry 
Valley to know the truth, and that they met two men, one 
of whom was an express, and that they killed one and took 
the other prisoner; and the man they took prisoner was a 
blacksmith, and he heard say that Brant said he was sorry 
they had killed the other f for he was a good king’s man. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Jacob Ford, reporting on the 
burning of Springfield from Cherry Valley on July 
18th, said he had only eighty men fit for duty be¬ 
sides the inhabitants. He had sent out a scouting 
party, but they found only the ruins of the settle¬ 
ments, with women and children and their effects 
crowded into the meeting-house, “ and they are so 
thick it seems to me that they must die there.” A 
few days later, a committee from German Flatts re¬ 
ported to Governor Clinton that since Springfield 
was destroyed, the Indians were “continually alarm¬ 
ing us with scalping parties who sometimes kill and 
scalp one and take another prisoner.” From two 
old men whom Brant had released they learned that 
Brant expected to join Colonel Butler in about 
eight days, and then “ fall in on the German Flatts 
and burn and destroy all that came before them.” 
Brant went down to Unadilla with his prisoners, 
cattle and provisions, and in July wrote at that 
place the following letter to Percefer Carr at Ed- 

* Joachim Van Valkenburg’s. 

213 


t Wormwood. 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


meston, showing that he contemplated another at¬ 
tack very soon : 

I understand by the Indians that was at your house last 
week, that one Smith lives near you, has little more corn 
to spare. I should be much obliged to you if you would be 
so kind as to try to get as much corn as Smith can spared: 
he has sent five skipples already, of which I am much ob¬ 
liged to him, and will see him paid and would be very glad 
if you could spare one or two of your own men to join us, 
especially Elias. I would be glad to see him and I wish 
you could sent me as many guns you have, as I know you 
have no use for them, if you any : as I mean now to fight 
the cruel rebels as well as I can : Whatever you will able 
to sent’d me you must sent’d by the bearer. 

P.S. I heard that Cherry Valley people is very bold and 
intended to make nothing of us : they called us wild geese, 
but I know the contrary. 

About this time, Captain Alexander Harper, “ a 
gentleman of veracity,” reported that “ the enemy 
are at Unadilla very strong, amounting to nigh 3,000 
men,” but a month later another estimate gave the 
number as only 1,500. Brant’s forces had been rap¬ 
idly increasing in his absence and a reward was of¬ 
fered for information in regard to the fortifications 
he had erected. 

Early in July a party of about 250 Indians and 
Tories invaded the Delaware as far down as Min¬ 
isink, killed several men and took prisoners, cattle, 
sheep and hogs back to Oghwaga. An affidavit 
made by Robert Jones at Minisink on July 10th 
contains the following interesting statement concern¬ 
ing this change in the scene of Brant’s operations : 

From Canajoharie I went to the Butternut or Old Eng¬ 
land District, and stayd there 10 or 11 days. Joseph 
Brant came there with six Indians and 2 or 3 Green Coat 

214 


WYOMING 


soldiers and stayd two days. He ordered the witness with 
nine famelies who liv’d at that place to go with him, if 
friends to government; if not to take their own risk. 
Himself and 4 families with S’d Brant went to Unadilla, 
the other five soon followed. Brant did not insist on their 
going, but would take their cattle. Neither would he pro¬ 
tect them unless they went with him. After that the wit¬ 
ness and one John Faalkner went with S’d Brant to Ogh- 
waga. After being there some time an express came from 
Butler to Brant ordering him to march immediately to 
Tioga, which orders Brant immediately obayd and stayd 
eight or nine days, saying when he returnd, that he had 
been at a treaty ; that the Indians refusd to join in an ex¬ 
pedition to the northward unless they first ware assisted to 
cut off the inhabetents of Susquehanna, at which treaty it 
was agreed that Butler should go to Wyoming and that 
Brant should stay at Anahquago. Brant in the mean time 
was to collect all the provision he could against the time 
Butler was to be at Anahquago. For that purpose Brant 
cald together all the old Indians who left the matter to him 
as to provision, &c. 

Brant then formed an expedition against Laxawaxen for 
the purpose of collecting provision and went one day on his 
march, when an express was sent after him requiring him 
to return immediately, on account that a party from the 
northward was expected to attack Unadilla. Brant im¬ 
mediately returnd and dispatched all the white men he 
could to the assistance of Unadilla and 2 days after being 
last Sunday, S’d Brant followed after, with all the Indian-s 
at that place. The same day five indians arrived at Agh- 
quago and gave information of a large number of Sinckes 
[Senecas] on their march to the same place to joyn Brant. 
On Tuesday a small number collected who, under the 
command of Capt’n Jacobs (an Indian) followed after 
Brant. They left the examinent at Anahquago ; he made 
his escape the same day. On his march says he met about 
20 Indians and white men with a number of prisoners, 
which they told him they got at Laxawaxen. 

215 



THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


The examinant also says that Butler is not to come 
down to Minisink (as he understood from Brant) but was 
to go from Wyoming on an expidition against Cherry Val¬ 
ley and to be joind by Brant, thinking it a favourable time 
for the purpose as he understood the time of the militia who 
guarded it is to expire next Fryday and he intends to attack 
it the Sunday following.* 

An invasion of the Schoharie settlements was 
next undertaken. Some 300 Indians and Tories, 
led by one of the McDonalds, a family now con¬ 
spicuously active among the Tories who had fled 
from Johnstown at the outbreak of the conflict, 
killed several of the inhabitants, made others pris¬ 
oners and burned houses. Their work of destruc¬ 
tion did not end until Colonel Harper went to Al¬ 
bany and returned with a squadron of cavalry, who, 
with the militia in the fort, finally forced the in¬ 
vaders to depart. 

Colonel Butler’s descent on Wyoming *j* followed 
speedily upon the council held at Tioga Point with 
Brant, at which it was agreed that Brant, instead 
of going to Wyoming with Butler, should continue 
his work of collecting Tories and provisions “ against 
the time ” when Butler should reach Oghwaga after 
visiting Wyoming. J Brant’s failure to take part in 
the expedition was consistent with his career in this 
war. His hostility and that of the Mohawks under 
him was not against Pennsylvania, but against the 

* Clinton Papers, vol. iv. 

t The meaning of this word is Broad Plains. 

t This was the only act on the part of Brant that approached even to 
complicity in the Wyoming barbarities, and yet for more than a hundred 
years, writers have continually represented that Brant shared with Butler 
in the atrocities there committed. The poet Campbell gave the error 
wide publicity by putting it into his “ Gertrude.” It has never died 
out of the popular memory. Less than four years ago an eminent Ameri¬ 
can historian inserted it in one of his books. 

2l6 


WYOMING 


New York frontier, where lands, rightfully theirs, 
were theirs no more, and where lived the men who 
had overthrown them at Oriskany. That Butler 
should go to Wyoming, was also consistent with 
the work Butler had undertaken to do. Butler rep¬ 
resented the cause of England, not the cause of the 
Indians, and there in the Wyoming Valley, lay one 
of the most populous and defenceless settlements 
that existed remote from the seaboard. To attack 
and destroy it, was to invite detachments for its de¬ 
fence at the expense of the American army which 
Howe, Cornwallis, and Clinton sought to overthrow. 

Wyoming had been settled from Connecticut, 
and under the charter granted by the king, was 
claimed as a township of that State, with the name 
of Westmoreland. But it was also claimed by the 
heirs of William Penn. For many years before the 
Revolution there had been bitter, and even armed, 
controversy over this disputed ownership. During 
those Pennamite wars the settlement on three occa¬ 
sions had virtually been destroyed. As early as 
1750, men from Connecticut had visited this beauti¬ 
ful wilderness valley, and made report on its ex¬ 
traordinary fertility. But it was not until 1762 
that any from that State arrived to cultivate its soil, 
and not until after the treaty of Fort Stanwix in 
1768, that they came in large numbers to establish 
homes upon it. 

Of their interest in this territory, we have already 
had glimpses in the correspondence between Dr. 
Wheelock and Sir William Johnson, and of those 
who were pouring into the valley after the treaty of 
Fort Stanwix, notes are to be found in the Smith 
and Wells Journal. Many of these Wyoming 
pioneers followed the Susquehanna route from 

217 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Otsego Lake and Cherry Valley, but others chose 
the course that had been employed by those who 
came as explorers in 1750. This route lay directly 
across the wilderness from the Hudson through the 
Minisink region to the Delaware, and thence over 
the hills to the Susquehanna. 

Colonel Butler started from Tioga Point, late in 
June, with about 1,100 men, of whom 400 were 
British, some of them his own Rangers, others Sir 
John Johnson’s Royal Greens, and companies of 
Tories, among the latter many men whom Brant 
had recruited along, and near the upper Susque¬ 
hanna, including Adam Crysler of Schoharie, and 
McGinnis of Unadilla. The 700 Indians were 
largely Senecas. 

Thus far in the Revolution nothing serious had 
occurred to disturb the repose of Wyoming. In 
all its history it had not seen so long a period of 
tranquillity as the one now about to close in a 
frightful tragedy. Few parts of the country were 
more prosperous. The population of the entire re¬ 
gion is believed to have reached 5,000. Practically 
all its men capable of bearing arms had gone into 
the army, making only one stipulation—that they 
should not be employed at points too far distant 
from their own homes. In this precaution are seen 
the fears of an Indian attack that haunted them. 

From the Pennamite Wars had survived at 
Wyoming a stockade called Forty Fort. The name 
is still perpetuated in the local geographical nomen¬ 
clature. Of Colonel Butler’s presence at Tioga 
Point, advance word had reached Wyoming, and 
within the walls of this structure some 500 women 
and children assembled, with an improvised force 
under one of the settlers. Colonel Zebulon Butler, a 

218 



WYOMING 


veteran of the French war, and an officer in the 
Continental Army, now home on furlough. This 
force was an unorganized, inexperienced body, com¬ 
posed of old men and beardless boys, the only adult 
males who had not enlisted. Of Colonel John 
Butler’s coming, word had been sent to Philadel¬ 
phia, and a Continental detachment, composed of 
many Wyoming men, had been sent for relief of 
the inhabitants. The inexperienced men who gath¬ 
ered in the fort, in the rashness of bravery, over¬ 
ruled the wishes of Colonel Zebulon Butler when 
the enemy appeared, and although there were only 
300 of them, they rushed forward out of the fort 
to attack the motley and disciplined fighters from 
Tioga Point, outnumbering them nearly four to 
one. 

The result of this battle on July 3d was appall¬ 
ing. Many were shot down at once. Others were 
captured, tomahawked and scalped. While Queen 
Esther sang her war-song above them, fourteen had 
their brains dashed out. Throughout the valley 
the torch and tomahawk completed the work of 
desolation, many women and children finding safety 
by taking flight to the woods, where they perished 
from exposure. With a misrepresentation that 
must have been consciously cynical, Crysler de¬ 
scribed this barbarous scene as “ an engagement in 
which about 460 * of the enemy were killed.” He 
added that “ from there we went to Oghwaga.” 

The Continental regiment reached Wyoming 
only to witness a scene of slaughter and desolation. 
A populous and prosperous settlement had virtu¬ 
ally been annihilated. Commanded by Colonel 
Hartley, and reinforced by a few militia companies, 

* Crysler’s estimate of the number killed is too large by at least ioo. 

219 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


this regiment proceeded up the valley against sev¬ 
eral Indian towns toward Oghwaga. Some of these 
were destroyed. Their ruins were discovered in the 
following summer by the soldiers who came into the 
country under General Sullivan. Colonel Hartley 
took several prisoners, but on learning that the Ind¬ 
ians and Tories had assembled at Oghwaga and 
Unadilla in large numbers, he found it unwise to 
continue his pursuit. 

Colonel John Butler, in this enterprise at Wyo¬ 
ming, is believed to have received encouragement 
and active assistance from partisans of the Penna- 
mite cause, who, during the Revolution, were mainly 
Tories. In them still survived an ancient bitterness 
toward the settlers from Connecticut that was now 
rendered all the more intense because, almost to a 
man, those settlers had become devoted supporters 
of the American cause. Events had thus greatly 
widened the breach, but the success of the Revolu¬ 
tion gave to these Connecticut families double 
cause for rejoicing. It released them from two 
enemies at once — the Pennamite partisans and 
George III. One may easily comprehend, there¬ 
fore, the enthusiasm with which a local patriotic 
society* gathers each year on July 3d, at the base 
of the Wyoming Monument, in commemoration of 
those who perished in the appalling tragedy on that 
frontier field of Pennsylvania. 

That many of the frontier settlements in New 
York might have been saved from destruction is as 
obvious as it is melancholy to recall. Warning after 
warning had been sent to the authorities, and yet 
practically nothing—nothing at least that was effec¬ 
tive—had been done for their protection. The 

* The Wyoming Commemorative Association of Wilkesbarre. 

220 




WYOMING 


frontiersmen were left to defend themselves with the 
aid of such small companies of militia as could be 
gathered. As early as April 8, 1778, General 
Conway sent word to Governor Clinton that the 
people on the frontier insisted that a “ small party 
of Continental troops should be without delay sta¬ 
tioned at Harpersfield and Schoharie to quiet the 
minds of the inhabitants, prevent them from mov¬ 
ing, and to give time for collecting the militia that is 
ordered to be raised.” 

General Clinton, ten days later, wrote to General 
Conway advising that a company or two of Conti¬ 
nental troops be sent to the frontier to act with the 
militia. From this correspondence the only result 
down to July appears to have been Captain Pat¬ 
rick’s small force so disastrously overwhelmed at 
Cobleskill. On July 20th General Clinton was 
advised that if Continental troops did not come the 
consequences cc were to be dreaded, for harvest time 
had arrived, and it was with the utmost difficulty that 
the militia could be induced to turn out.” Of 600 
who had been ordered out in June, only 200 had 
reported. If Continentals did not arrive, Colonel 
Klock feared the whole county of Tryon must 
meet the fate of Springfield. <c It is much to be 
lamented,” wrote General Schuyler to Governor 
Clinton, “ that the finest grain country in this state 
is on the point of being entirely ruined for want of 
a body of Continental troops.” 

On whom full responsibility rests for this neglect, 
perhaps cannot be said, but a large measure of it 
must fall to General Horatio Gates, then in com¬ 
mand of the Northern Department. The main 
fact, of course, was that the Hudson Valley needed 
for its defence, now as before, the fullest force pos- 

221 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


sible. Here was the central ground of the conflict, 
for control of which had been fought the battles 
of Long Island, Harlem Heights, Trenton, Prince¬ 
ton, Saratoga, the Brandywine, Germantown, and 
Monmouth; but the Hudson was now more secure 
than it had ever been, and men enough ought to 
have been spared for the protection of the frontier 
where lay the granary of the northern colonies. 
General Gates has many blunders, if not worse 
things, at the door of his unhonored memory, and 
one of them is neglect of the New York frontier. 
Governor Clinton wrote from his heart when he 
said to James Duane, on August ioth : “ It is much 
to be regretted that the operations which were in¬ 
tended by Congress against the Indians have hitherto 
been so utterly neglected by the commanding officer 
of the Northern Department.” He promised later 
on to tell Duane the reasons which he thought had 
influenced Gates’s conduct. 


I'l'i 


Ill 


German Flatts Destroyed 

1 77 8 

D ISASTER was soon to enter the Mohawk 
Valley. Well up the stream, and not far 
from the Fort Stanwix line of 1768, stood 
the thriving settlement of German Flatts, which was 
now to meet a fate that recalled the one which over¬ 
whelmed it during the French War. Here was a 
settlement that marked almost the farthest advance 
westward on the Mohawk. A few miles south of 
it, by passing over the high lands, the traveller 
reached the head-waters of the Unadilla River. 

Warning after warning had been given that Ger¬ 
man Flatts was in danger. But it was not until 
July 24th that a Continental force reached the fron¬ 
tier. On that day Colonel Alden’s long-expected 
regiment arrived in Cherry Valley, but this lay 
many miles to the eastward of German Flatts and 
on another water-shed. Captain Benjamin Warren 
has described the scene when this regiment arrived : 

About four o’clock arrived at the garrison, which was 
a meeting-house picketted in, with a large number of dis¬ 
tressed inhabitants crowded in, men, women, and children : 
drew some rum before the men and placed them in their 
several quarters. The inhabitants received us with the 
greatest tokens of joy and respect, and it was like a gen¬ 
eral jail delivery. They began to take the fresh air and 
move into the nearest houses from their six weeks’ confine¬ 
ment in that place. 

Sunday, 26th. About eleven o’clock returned to the 
223 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


garrison, where we had a sermon preached by the Rev. 
Mr. Johnston * from these words : “ Be of good cheer and 
play the man for our people, and the cities of our God, 
and the Lord will do what seemeth Him good.” 

Word reached Cherry Valley on August ioth 
that Brant intended making an attack, “ in conse¬ 
quence of which,” says Warren, “ Captain Ballard, 
with a party of sixty men, was sent out to make dis¬ 
covery.” Ballard went to Butternut Creek, where 
were still dwelling several Tory families, while the 
remaining troops occupied themselves with strength¬ 
ening the fort. Ballard brought back seventy-three 
heads of cattle, forty sheep, fourteen horses, and 
fourteen Tories. The next day Ballard set out for 
Albany with the Tories. Another scouting expe¬ 
dition under an officer named Wheelock went to 
Unadilla, and other scouts were constantly employed 
for two months, Warren’s account of them being 
as follows: 

Aug. 16th. A small scout of six men went out near 
Tunacliss’,f fell in with a small party of the Indians, killed 
one, but the rest escaped. 

Aug. 19th. On receiving intelligence by one of our 
scouts that Brant and his party were to be at Tunacliss’, a 
party of one hundred and fifty men commanded by Col. 
Stacy marched by the way of the foot of Lake Osago [Ot¬ 
sego] ; came to houses about seventeen miles and lodged 
there [Warren was in the party]. 

Aug. 21 st. This morning about daybreak paraded, 
marched through low and swampy ground. About ten 
o’clock crossed two creeks and twelve o’clock arrived on a 
mountain, looking down on Tunacliss’ house : made no dis¬ 
covery of the enemy : sent a party each way to the right 
and left to surround the house ; we then rushed down; 

* William Johnston, the Sidney pioneer. 

224 


f Richfield, 



GERMAN FLATTS DESTROYED 


found none of them, though a sumptuous meal prepared 
for the enemy, who on our arrival at the house fired a gun 
in the woods near us and some were seen to run off. The 
women would give us no information, but a lad being 
threatened, informed that some Indians had been there 
that morning. We made good use of the victuals and pro¬ 
ceeded to the foot of Schuyler’s lake ; forded the creek, and 
marched down to Schuyler’s house, about nine miles ; made 
no discovery of the enemy ; lodged there. 

We sent a scout down to Tunadilla, who took three 
prisoners out of their beds and came off undiscovered ; who 
gave information on examination that Brant was to muster 
and arm his men the next day, and march for this place 
[Cherry Valley] or the Flats; that his party was about 
400 or 500 strong. 

McKendry says this scout was McKean and that 
he returned on September 9th. One of the pris¬ 
oners was an inhabitant of Unadilla, who said that 
Brant had issued orders “ for a meeting, in order 
to draw ammunition; that there was an expedition 
going on, but could not tell which way.” He said 
the number of Indians and Tories was“ reported to 
be 2,000.” The other prisoner told the same story 
as to an expedition, but placed the number of the 
enemy at 400 to 600, of whom 100 were at Una¬ 
dilla, the others at Oghwaga. 

At German Flatts Brant had been expected all 
through the summer. In September nine men from 
that place were sent down the Unadilla River to 
learn what he was doing. At the Edmeston settle¬ 
ment some Indians surprised and killed three of 
them, driving the others into the Unadilla River. 
John Adam Helmer fled back in hot haste to the 
settlement with news that Brant was advancing with 
a large force. Helmer arrived with his clothing 

225 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 

“ torn to tatters, his eyes bloodshot, his hands, face, 
and limbs lacerated, and bleeding from the effects of 
the brambles and bushes through which he had 
forced his headlong flight.” 

An hour later, on September 17th, Brant, with 310 
Tories and 152 Indians, arrived, and camped in a 
ravine for the night, ignorant of the fact that Hel- 
mer’s warning had sent all the inhabitants into the 
neighboring forts—Forts Herkimer and Dayton— 
occupying the two sides of the river. In the gray 
of the morning Brant set fire to the settlement, and 
the people in the forts were thus able to witness 
the destruction of their homes. All that was left 
standing of the settlement around Fort Dayton 
comprised the fort, church, and two houses. An 
attempt to take the fort proved unsuccessful. 
Across the river the enemy “ burned all the houses, 
barns and grain, quite down to the church,” but at 
the fort “ we sallied out with what men we could 
spare and kept them from destroying any more 
houses.” * There were 63 houses burned, 57 barns, 
4 mills, all the furniture and grain, and a good 
many hogs were killed. On his return down the 
river to Unadilla, Brant carried away 235 horses, 
229 cattle, 269 sheep, and 93 oxen. 

Soon after Brant started to return, a militia force 
of 300 or 400 men set out in pursuit, but went 
only as far as Edmeston, where they buried the 
three scouts whom the Indians had killed. At Ed¬ 
meston lived Brant’s friend Carr, who met a hard 
fate. Some Oneidas invaded his estate, killed his 
servants and carried the family into captivity, where 
they remained until the war closed. A story has 
come down that a horse left on the farm was found 

* Colonel Bellinger’s Report, printed in the Clinton Papers, vol. iv. 

226 


GERMAN FLATTS DESTROYED 


still there when they returned in 1783, having sur¬ 
vived all the hardships of its lonely lot. 

Some Oneidas and Tuscaroras soon afterward in¬ 
vaded the Unadilla Valley, burnt several houses, re¬ 
took some of the German Flatts cattle, and brought 
back a number of prisoners. In their report the 
Indians said : 

We have now taken the hatchet and burnt Unadilla and 
a place called the Butternutts. We have brought five pris¬ 
oners from each of the above places. Our warriors were 
particular that no hurt should be done to women and chil¬ 
dren. We left four old men behind who were no more 
able to go to war. The Grass Hopper, one of the Oneida 
chiefs, took to himself one of the prisoners to live with him 
in his own family; his name is William Lull, and has 
adopted him as his son. Brothers, we deliver to you six 
prisoners with whom you are to act as you please. 

The other prisoners were Robert McGinnis, John 
McGinnis, John Harrison, Michael Stopplopen, 
Barry Laughlin, Moses Thurston, Caleb Lull, and 
Benjamin Lull. Captain Warren says of the action 
taken at Cherry Valley on receipt of the news from 
German Flatts: 

Immediately on our receiving intelligence, which was 
twenty-four hours after it was done, though but twelve 
miles distant, Major Whiting went out with one hundred 
and eighty men, who pursued them as far as the Butternuts, 
but could not overtake them. He took three of their 
party, tories, and brought them in with some stock they 
left in their hurry. Brant’s party, fearing the country would 
be upon their backs, made what haste back they could. A 
division of them arrived first at Tunadilla, and found the 
place had been beset with our people and put off immediately. 

Failing still to secure adequate aid from the State 
or national authorities, a committee writing from 

227 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Canajoharie on September 28th, made the following 
appeal to Governor Clinton: 

Woeful Experience teaches us that the Troops in Cherry 
Valley are by no means a Defence for any other Part of 
the Country. Strange as it may appear to your Excellency, 
it is no less true, that our Militia by Desertion to the En¬ 
emy and by Enlistments into our Service, are reduced to 
less than seven hundred Men. Indeed if these 700 would 
do their Duty and act like Men, we might perhaps give the 
Enemy a Check, so as to give Time to the Militia from 
below to come up, but, Sir, they are actuated by such an 
ungovernable Spirit that it is out of the Power of any Officer 
in this County to command them with any Credit to him¬ 
self—for notwithstan’g the utmost Exertion the Officers 
have nothing but Blame in return. 

From the Information we are able to collect from Pris¬ 
oners and otherwise, we learn that the Enemy, when at 
the German Flatts, were 500 or upwards strong, commanded 
by a Capt. Caldwell. That they intended soon to make an¬ 
other Incursion, and that a Reinforcement of 5 or 600 
were on its March from the western Nations of Indians to 
join the Enemy, Indians being frequently seen and our 
People fired upon, seems in our opinion to indicate a speedy 
Return of the Enemy. 


228 


IV 


The Burning of Unadilla 
and Oghwaga 

1778 



IGOROUS measures were now to be em¬ 


ployed against the enemy. Heretofore they 


▼ had practically had no opposition. The man 
to whom was committed this work was another man 
named Butler—Colonel William Butler. With his 
regiment of Scotch-Irish and four companies of 
Morgan’s Riflemen, Butler, in August, was stationed 
at Schoharie. Late, indeed, was his coming, and he 
had come as the result of many passionate appeals. 
Had he or some other commander come earlier with 
a force strong enough to have held Unadilla against 
an advance, this whole story of desolation in Schoharie 
and around Otsego Lake might never have been told. 

Governor Clinton, on May 30th, the day of the 
battle of Cobleskill, had conveyed to Colonel Klock 
his wishes that a detachment of militia commanded 
by Colonel Clyde be sent to Unadilla. He be¬ 
lieved it would be “ attended with very important 
consequences.” As events turned out in Coble- 
skill, a mere detachment sent to Unadilla probably 
would have been annihilated. On June nth Gov¬ 
ernor Clinton, referring to Colonel Alden’s assign¬ 
ment to Cherry Valley, wrote: 

No force that can be collected will be able to afford full 
protection to the inhabitants unless the flying party by 


229 






THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


whom they are distressed can be routed at the places where 
they usually rendezvous. This, I am informed, is Una- 
dilla. I would therefore advise an expedition against that 
place, if you and Gen. Stark shall judge it practicable. 

On July i st General Ten Broeck advised Gov¬ 
ernor Clinton that “ the people of Tryon County 
are much for the enterprise to Unadilla.” They 
had requested him to appoint the officers to com¬ 
mand it. There were reasons why it was thought 
the command ought to fall to Colonel Peter R. 
Livingston ; but Ten Broeck was not in favor of 
Livingston, and suggested that a Continental officer, 
and perhaps Colonel Marinus Willett, be named in¬ 
stead. Governor Clinton was favorable to Colonel 
Willett, but he seems not to have been available, 
being wanted elsewhere. Meanwhile had occurred 
the burning of Springfield and the massacre of Wy¬ 
oming. 

On July 21 st we find Governor Clinton suggest¬ 
ing to Washington that Colonel Butler’s Continen¬ 
tal regiment, “ instead of halting at Wawarsing, 
should proceed immediately at least as far north as 
Schoharie, as it is most probable the next attempt 
of the enemy will be against that settlement.” On 
July 29th Colonel Butler was in Albany and com¬ 
plained to Governor Clinton : 

Gen. Stark, on my showing him my instructions, said 
it was impossible to carry on offensive operations against 
the enemy at present, and (to make use of his own words) 
it would be like pulling a cat by the tail to get out the 
militia at this time. He says some time hence we may 
attack them and intimates that he intends to command the 
expedition himself. He has also ordered Col. Alden to 
join his regiment now lying at Cherry Valley, which de¬ 
prives me of the honor your Excellency intended me in 

230 


COLONEL WILLIAM BUTLER 


the command of the whole. If your Excellency thinks 
me worthy of the command and empowers me to carry on 
offensive measures against the enemy, I will do it at the 
risk of my honor and everything I hold sacred. If this 
cannot be, I will do my duty in the command of my de¬ 
tachment.* 

Two days later Butler had reached Schoharie 
with his regiment and reported that the accounts of 
the enemy “ are exceeding various, but from the 
best intelligence that I have yet been able to get 
they are about fifteen hundred in number at Una- 
dilla.” He had made an addition to the fort in 
Schoharie and mounted two pieces of artillery. On 
August 13 th he wrote further to Governor Clinton: 

On my arrival here I found three forts erected by the 
inhabitants for their protection within four miles of each 
other. I took post at one I thought most liable to be at¬ 
tacked and immediately sent out a subaltern with a small 
scout to reconnoitre the country, and to make what dis¬ 
coveries he could of the enemy. He proceeded about 25 
miles to one Service’s, a noted villain, who had constantly 
supply’d the enemy with necessaries. Service luckily was 
at home, and upon his refusing to surrender, and making 
some resistance, one of the party shot him. They also 
brought in 4 prisoners. 

Before the return of the scout I received intelligence 
from Genl. Stark of one Smith who had raised a number 
of Tories and was marching to join the enemy. I im¬ 
mediately detached Capt. Long, of the Rifle Corps, with a 
party to intercept their march. Captain Long fell in with 
them, kill’d Smith and brought in his scalp, brought in also 
one prisoner and it is thought wounded a number. Only 
one of Capt. Long’s party was wounded. 

With the prisoners taken by the first party, there was 
some letters from Smith to Butler and Brant, informing 
* Clinton Papers, vol. iii. 

23I 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


them that he would meet them at Service’s on Sunday 
following with a number of Tories whom he had engaged. 
I also had intelligence that the intention of the enemy was 
to march in a body to Service’s and there divide, one 
party to attack Cherry Valley and the other this place. 

Except in these instances I have been obliged to act 
totally on the defensive; the little dependence that can be 
put in the few militia that do turn out, the disaffection of 
most of the inhabitants to us, the distance and wilderness 
of country that we have to pass through to the enemy 
without the necessaries for such an expedition, make it 
very difficult in my present situation to act otherwise. 

Since my coming here numbers of the disaffected people 
begin to have a proper sense of their error, and are hourly 
coming in, begging protection, and are desirous of taking 
the oath of fidelity to the States.* 

Service’s house was in Harpersfield. The local 
tradition concerning his fate is that when Captain 
Long and his men surrounded his house, two of 
them, David Elerson and Timothy Murphy, en¬ 
tered and made Service a prisoner. Watching for 
his opportunity, Service seized an axe and was aim¬ 
ing for Murphy’s head when a shot from Elerson 
brought him dead to the floor. Murphy became a 
picturesque figure in the Border Wars. He came 
originally from Virginia and owed much of his suc¬ 
cess to his accuracy of aim and his double-barrelled 
rifle, of whose peculiar utility the Indians seem to 
have been ignorant. He acquired many of the arts 
of the Indians in warfare, and was known to scalp 
his victims. It was said at the close of the war that 
he had personally killed forty Indians. 

Of Murphy many striking tales have been nar¬ 
rated—some of them almost too good to be true. 

* Clinton Papers, vol. iii. 

232 



TIMOTHY MURPHY 


He was once sent out with a small company of 
riflemen to destroy an Indian and Tory village near 
Unadilla. A contributor to Jay Gould’s book re¬ 
lates that “ after a laborious march through marshes 
and over mountains in which they endured innu¬ 
merable privations, they arrived in sight of the village, 
which lay in a beautiful valley. They remained on 
the mountain until midnight, when they advanced 
slowly and cautiously. Luckily most of the Ind¬ 
ians were asleep, and after a warm contest, in which 
clubs, fists, feet, and tomahawks were used by the 
old Indians, squaws, and papooses, and were resent¬ 
ed by the riflemen with fists, feet, and the ends of 
their guns, the village was reduced to ashes.” Be¬ 
fore the riflemen returned home, the Indian war¬ 
riors reached their ruined village and killed several 
of the men. But Murphy and some others es¬ 
caped, Murphy finding a hiding-place in a large 
hollow log. It so happened that the Indians chose 
their camping-place that night near this log, so that 
Murphy was obliged to spend the night as comfort¬ 
ably as he could. On the following morning, when 
one Indian remained alone in the camp, Murphy 
killed that man and made his escape. 

Meanwhile Colonel Cantine was commanding 
some militia on the frontier of Ulster and Orange 
counties. On September 6th Governor Clinton 
wrote to him: “ I am fully convinced that we are 
not to have peace on our frontier until the strag¬ 
gling Indians and Tories who infest it are extermi¬ 
nated or driven back and their settlements destroyed. 
If, therefore, you can destroy the settlement at 
Oghwaga, it will, in my opinion, be a good piece of 
service.” 

This work was to be undertaken by other hands, 

2 33 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


and very soon. Colonel Butler’s plans for an ex¬ 
pedition to Unadilla having finally met with the ap¬ 
proval of General Stark, Butler, about September 
■20th, sent out four men as scouts, who returned 
with three prisoners from Unadilla and reported 
that the number of the enemy at that place reached 
300 and at Oghwaga 400, while the number at 
Tioga Point could not be ascertained. A scout 
who went to Unadilla some days later (possibly 
Murphy) returned word that the Indians had fled. 

Butler now started for the Susquehanna with his 
regiment, the riflemen, and some Indians—in all 
about 500 men, according to Warren. He crossed 
the hills from Schoharie to the Delaware, and thence 
proceeded to the Ouleout, which he reached below 
the site of Franklin village, following the stream to 
the Scotch Settlement, Albout. An account of the 
expedition is contained in a letter, written by But¬ 
ler himself to General Stark. Having described the 
march as far as the Ouleout, Butler says : 

Oct. 6. Began our march early this morning and at 
dusk arrived within eight miles of the Unadilla settlement. 
I here detailed Lieuts. Stewart and Long, with small par¬ 
ties, to make prisoners of some inhabitants who lived with¬ 
in four miles of Unadilla. I then continued my road in 
the night, in order to be better concealed and within a 
smaller distance from the settlement from whence I might 
make the attack early in the morning. But after having 
reached about seven miles I met the parties who were de¬ 
tached with one prisoner; he told me the enemy had 
left the place some days before and were gone to Ana- 
quago. 

Butler now started for the Johnston Settlement, 
taking the trail on the Sidney side of the river. On 
October 8th, early in the morning, he says he “ de- 

234 


UNADILLA BURNT 


tailed Lieutenant Stewart with four men to Una^ 
dilla to make a prisoner of one Glagford who I 
intended should guide me to Anaquago.” Stewart 
secured his man, the sole occupant of the place, and 
“ after the troops had cooked their provisions and 
rested themselves a little, marched five miles beyond 
Unadilla.” Of the destruction of Oghwaga the 
best account is given by Captain William Gray, one 
of Butler’s officers, who says : 

We marched down the river Susquehanna for Oghquaga, 
the chief Indian town, where we thought to start a party of 
savages and Tories by surprise; but we happened unluckily 
to be discovered by some scouting savages who made the 
best of their way. We could not come up with them, 
though our scouting party travelled all night to no purpose. 
We got to Oghquaga about io o’clock at night, which we 
found evacuated, also in greatest disorder. Everything 
seemed as if they had fled in greatest haste. Next morning 
we set the town (which consisted of 30 or 40 good houses) 
in flames, destroying therein great quantities of household 
furniture and Indian corn. The same day we marched 
from Oghquaga up the river to another town called Cuna- 
hunta, burning some Indian houses and corn on the road. 
From there we marched very early, leaving it in flames. 

Gray says that on their return, when they came 
to the river about one and a half miles below the 
mouth of the Unadilla, it was “ dreadful to see so 
large a stream to the man’s breast, and very rapid 
and rising at the rate of one inch a minute, but by 
the pressing desire of the men to get on and the dil¬ 
igence of the officers with their own and the pack 
horses they were all got over safe, which if we had 
been but an hour longer we could not have crossed, 
and God only knows what would have been the 
dreadful consequences.” Butler’s letter, under date 

2 35 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


of October ioth, describes the burning of the 
houses near the mouth of the Unadilla: 

October io. This day we burned all the houses in the 
Unadilla settlement that were on the south side of the Sus¬ 
quehanna, except Glagford’s. We also burned a saw and 
grist mill, the latter the only one in the country. 

October n. This day I ordered the troops to rest and 
clean their arms, and prepared a raft to transport some men 
on the Susquehanna to burn the other part of the Unadilla 
settlement. Lieut. Long, with one private, crossed in the 
raft and burned all the houses. According to my compu¬ 
tation I think there were upwards of 4,000 bushels of grain 
destroyed at Anaquago and Unadilla. 

Gray says the expedition proceeded the same 
evening “ up the east side of the river as far as the 
Scotch Settlement, burning all we met along that 
could be of any use to the enemy. We could not 
march thence on Sunday by reason of the great 
rains. On Monday we marched, burning some 
Tory houses before we set out, and encamped in the 
woods that night.” This camping place was at the 
mouth of Handsome Brook.* 

After an absence of sixteen days the expedition 
reached Schoharie with forty-nine captured horses 
and fifty-two horned cattle. Including the officers 
there were 260 men in the command. Warren’s 
statement that there were 500 men is obviously an 
error. Besides the 4,000 bushels of grain found at 
the two settlements, there was a large quantity of 
vegetables and poultry, besides several dogs and 
household goods. Butler’s men fared sumptuously. 
Stone says Oghwaga “ was uncommonly well built 

* The map that accompanies Gray’s letter shows that the Scotch Set¬ 
tlement lay on both sides of the Ouleout, and that there were Indian 
huts farther up the stream. 

236 


OGHYVAGA DESTROYED 


for an Indian settlement, there being a considerable 
number of good farm-houses on either side of the 
river. These were all destroyed, together with the 
Indian castle three miles farther down the river, as 
also large quantities of provision intended for their 
winter’s supply.” Butler describes Oghwaga as 
“ the finest Indian town I ever saw.” 

The Indians had left Oghwaga only the day be¬ 
fore Butler arrived, and had made their way to the 
Delaware at Cookoze,* whence they descended upon 
some of the Minisink settlements. Brant had ioo 
men with him, and besides killing several persons, 
burned barns well filled with the year’s crops and 
carried off many cattle. By the time Butler reached 
Schoharie, Brant had probably arrived in Oghwaga 
to learn of the fate that had overtaken his principal 
base of supplies. 

* Sometimes written Cook House and now Deposit. Here, in 1858, 
eighty years after these events, a granddaughter of Brant was killed in 
an accident to a train on the Erie Railroad while the train was standing 
at the station. She was buried in Owego. 


23 7 


V 


The Cherry Valley Massacre 


1778 


HE massacre of Cherry Valley followed 



speedily upon the destruction of Unadilla 


JL and Oghwaga, and may be traced directly to 
Colonel Butler’s drastic work. Although an attack 
had long been contemplated, this massacre as to its 
immediate causes was an act of retaliation. 

Four Indian chiefs, a month after the attack, de¬ 
clared to Colonel Cantine that “ your rebels came 
to Oghwaga when we Indians were gone, and you 
burned our houses, which made us and our brothers, 
the Seneca Indians, angry, so that we destroyed 
men, women, and children at Cherry Valley.” * 
Many of the Indians had a bitter hatred of Cherry 
Valley, for there lived Colonel Samuel Clyde *j* and 
Colonel Samuel Campbell, both of whom had been 
conspicuous in the battle of Oriskany.J Another 
motive on the part of the Indians had survived from 
the massacre of Wyoming, four months before. At 
the capitulation of Forty Fort, Colonel Dennison 
had entered into an agreement not to serve against 

* Clinton Papers, vol. iv. 

t Colonel Clyde’s wife was Catherine Wasson, a niece of Dr. Matthew 
Thornton, of Londonderry, N. H., one of the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence. Her early home was at Amsterdam, where she had 
known Brant as a boy playmate of her brothers. 

I Dr. James D. Clyde, of Cherry Valley, still possesses the British 
musket with which Colonel Clyde was knocked down in this battle. 
The soldier was about to run him through with the bayonet when an 
American shot the soldier, the ball tearing away a piece of the stock of 
the gun. 


238 






the site of the Revolutionary Fort. 




















THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE 


the forces of Great Britain again, but when Colonel 
Hartley set out in pursuit of Colonel John Butler 
and destroyed some Indian towns on the upper 
Susquehanna, Dennison went with him. This had 
deepened the feeling of resentment on the part of 
the Indians toward all settlers on the frontier. Still 
another motive of revenge sprang from the breast of 
a white man—one who has been commonly accepted 
as the master fiend in this tragedy. 

Just before the Indian council assembled at Ti¬ 
oga Point, Brant had been on his way to Niagara 
for the winter. He had the misfortune somewhere 
on the Susquehanna beyond Oghwaga to fall in with 
Captain Walter Butler. Butler had recently been 
tried at court-martial and punished with imprison¬ 
ment as a spy, this court having been ordered by 
Benedict Arnold. In April he had made his es¬ 
cape and was now anxious for revenge. He found 
the Senecas and some of the other Indians stirred 
to revenge quite willing to join him in an expedition 
to Cherry Valley. Brant argued against the expe¬ 
dition but was induced to yield. His opposition 
probably sprang in part from his dislike of Walter 
Butler. Butler, moreover, was to command the ex¬ 
pedition, and this was not pleasing to Brant. 

It was strange that General Hand, who was now 
in command at Albany, had failed to make adequate 
preparations against an attack. So far from doing 
so he seems to have contemplated an actual re¬ 
moval from Cherry Valley of its only defence, 
Colonel Alden’s regiment. On October 12th 
Captain Warren wrote in his diary that the regi¬ 
ment was “ likely to be removed from here soon.” 
Early in November General Hand went himself to 
Cherry Valley, and Warren writes that during his 

239 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


stay “an express arrived from Fort Schuyler in¬ 
forming that one of the Oneidas was at a council of 
war of the enemy’s in which it was determined to 
visit Cherry Valley.” This message came from 
Colonel Gansevoort and stated that the council had 
been held at Tioga Point, which, in fact, was the 
case. 

General Hand thereupon returned to the Mo¬ 
hawk Valley, and ordered Colonel Klock to “ send 
immediately 200 men ” to reinforce Cherry Val¬ 
ley. He sent word that Klock would arrive on 
November 9th. On the 7th twenty citizens had 
signed a letter to Hand expressing great fears of an 
early attack and adding “ to prevent which and to 
disappoint our fears, Oh, General, let a sufficient 
number of troops be allowed us, and if possible 
those we now have under Colonel Alden, as they 
now are acquainted with our country and the roads 
and haunts of our enemy ; so that by their means 
we may be secured from slaughter and devastation.” 
Although Colonel Klock was only twenty miles 
away he failed to reach Cherry Valley on Novem¬ 
ber 9th as promised. When he did arrive he was 
too late. The massacre had already occurred. 

The attacking force, marching from Tioga Point, 
received additions on its way up the Susquehanna 
until 800 men, of whom 600 were Indians, 150 
Tories, 50 British troops, and 4 British officers, 
were collected, including Senecas under Hiokatoo. 

On November 9th Colonel Alden, hearing noth¬ 
ing from Colonel Klock, sent a scouting party of 
one sergeant and eight men down the valley. They 
soon met the advancing invaders and were made 
prisoners. Two days later, at midday, the attack on 
Cherry Valley was made. The enemy did not come 

240 



THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE 


directly along the highway that followed the creek, 
but descended from a hill below the village where 
they had spent the night, a spot now frequently 
pointed out to travellers. They gave the settle¬ 
ment a complete surprise, “ notwithstanding all our 
endeavors to the contrary,” wrote Major Whiting. 

One of the most shocking incidents connected 
with the massacre was the first—the killing of the 
Robert Wells family, comprising nine members and 
three servants. Every one of the family, except 
John Wells, a son then attending school in Sche¬ 
nectady, was murdered. The Wells house was on 
the site of the Lindesay settlement of 1739, now 
known as the Phelan place, an elevated and beauti¬ 
ful spot, just below the village. Captain Wells him¬ 
self was killed by a Tory who boasted afterward 
that he did this while Captain Wells was on his 
knees in prayer. Wells’s daughter Jane fled to 
a place behind a pile of wood, but a Seneca Indian 
found her there and slew her with his tomahawk. 
Captain Wells had been intimately associated with 
Sir William Johnson in his official work and was 
one of the best-known men on the frontier. When 
Colonel Butler heard of his fate he said, “ I would 
have gone miles on my hands and knees to have 
saved that family, and why my son did not do so 
God only knows.” Brant had known the family 
for many years, and his comment was that they were 
as dear to him as his own. 

Colonel Alden had fled from this house as he 
saw the enemy approaching, hoping to reach the 
fort, but he was killed on the road by a blow from 
a tomahawk. One of the scouting party was forced 
to guide the enemy to the quarters of the officers 
who were living in private houses outside the 

241 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


fort. When the advance was made on the fort, 
Whiting says, “ had it not been for the great ac¬ 
tivity and alertness of the troops, they had rushed 
within the lines. We had about six or eight of the 
regiment killed.” Warren’s account is as follows : 

The enemy pushed vigorously for the Fort, but our 
Soldiers behaved with great spirit and alertness ; defended 
the Fort, and repulsed them after three hours and a half 
smart engagement. Twelve of the regiment beside the 
Col. killed, and two wounded. 

Nov. 12.—The Indians came on again, and gave a shout 
for rushing on, but our cannon played on them back; they 
soon gave way; they then went round the settlement, burnt 
all the buildings, mostly the first day, and collected all the 
stock and drove the most of it off, killed and captured all 
the inhabitants, a few that hid in the woods excepted, who 
have since got into the fort. 

Nov. 13—In the afternoon and morning of the 13th we 
sent out parties after the enemy withdrew ; brought in the 
dead ; such a shocking sight my eyes never beheld before of 
savage and brutal barbarity ; to see the husband mourning 
over his dead wife, with four dead children lying by her side, 
mangled, scalpt, and some of the heads, some the legs 
and arms cut off, some the flesh torn off their bones by their 
dogs—twelve of one family all killed and four of them burnt 
in his house. 

Saturday 14th.—The enemy seem to begone; we sent 
out to collect what was left of cattle or anything ; found 
some more dead and buried them. 

Sunday 15th—This day some provisions arrived, being the 
first supply after the first attack, when we had not a pound 
of bread for men in garrison for four or five days, but a 
trifle of meat. In the afternoon a scout we thought had 
been taken by them, a sergeant and eight arrived in safe. 
But some they took prisoners they let go again; informed 
they had a number wounded, and we saw a number of them 
fall, so that we have reason to think killed more of them 

242 



THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE 


than they killed of our regiment, though they butchered 
about 40 women and children, that have been found. It 
came on to storm before the engagement began ; first with 
rain, but for the day past it has been a thick snowstorm. 

Monday 16th—The snow continued falling and is al¬ 
most knee deep on a level. 

Though there were 300 men between this and the river 
[Mohawk] most of them together before we were attacked, 
yet they came within four miles and laid there until they 
were assured the enemy was gone off.* Col. [William] 
Butler, though near forty miles off, marched and got near 
and would have been the first to our assistance, had we not 
sent him word they were gone off. We are here in a schock- 
ing situation ; scarcely an officer that has anything left 
but what they have on their backs.f 

The citizens killed were thirty in number, and 
seventy-one others were made prisoners, the most of 
them being released afterward. The number of 
houses burned was twenty, of barns twenty-five, and 
of mills two. During the night after the attack 
many inhabitants were shut out from the fort 
“ where they lay all night in the rain with the chil¬ 
dren who suffered most.” One of the prisoners was 
a boy named Campbell whose son William W. was 
afterward to write the well-known history of these 
times. 

Among those who escaped were the Johnstons. 
Hugh Johnston, then a lad, saw from the fort the 

* Warren refers here to Colonel Klock’s dilatory action under General 
Hand’s orders. Warren’s Diary is in the Spark’s Collection of Manu¬ 
scripts at Harvard. 

t McKendry gives the names of the Continentals who were killed as 
follows: Ichabod Alden, Robert Henderson, Thomas Sheldon, Gideon 
Day, Benjamin Adams, Thomas Mires (sic), Thomas Hilden, Daniel 
Dudley, Enos Blakeley, Thomas Noles, Oliver Deboll, Simeon Hopkins, 
and Robert Bray. Those made prisoners were: Colonel William Stacey, 
Lieutenant Aaron Holden, Ensign Andrew Garret, Sergeant Suzer de 
Bean, and eleven privates whose names McKendry does not give. 

243 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


advance of the Indians and hastened to Mrs. Can¬ 
non’s house, where his father lived, and gave the 
warning by which the Dominie, his wife, and chil¬ 
dren were able to hasten to the woods and there 
secrete themselves. From this point of safety they 
witnessed the destruction of the settlement. A lad 
seven years old who accompanied them was David 
McMaster, a grandson of the Dominie, who settled 
in Unadilla after the war. Mr. Johnston had now 
lived in Cherry Valley for more than a year. A 
month before the massacre he had married Captain 
McKean and Mrs. Jennie Campbell. Lieutenant 
McKendry describes him as “ late of Tunadilla,” 
and says he performed another marriage ceremony 
in September at which the guests “ drank seven 
gallons of wine.” On the arrival of Colonel Alden’s 
regiment he had been made chaplain. 

Another who escaped was Mr. Dunlop, who owed 
his life to Little Aaron, one of the chiefs of the Ogh- 
waga Mohawks.* But Mr. Dunlop’s wife perished 
in the storm. In Cherry Valley is still preserved an 
ancient clock made in Kilmarnock, Scotland, that 
escaped the fire which burned the Campbell home. 
It was originally brought into the country by the 
pioneer Campbell, and was saved from the fire by a 
boy who concealed it in an orchard near the house. 

Here in Cherry Valley now dwelt the Ogdens of 
Otego. When the alarm came, Mrs. Ogden with 
her children fled to the woods, carrying a blanket 

* Campbell describes the incident as follows : “ Little Aaron led him 
out from the house tottering with age, and stood beside him to protect 
him. An Indian passing by pulled his hat from his head and ran away 
with it; the Chief pursued him and regained it. On his return another 
Indian had carried away Mr. Dunlop’s wig; the rain was falling upon 
his bare head, while his whole system shook like an aspen under the con¬ 
tinued influences of age, fear, and cold. He died about a year after; his 
death was hastened by his misfortunes.” 

2 44 


THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE 


with which to cover them. She finally made her 
way in safety to the Mohawk, where her husband, 
some days later, joined them. The Ogdens had 
been well known to Brant before the war. As we 
have seen, Brant had often been down the Susque¬ 
hanna in his canoe on expeditions of war and sur¬ 
veying and was familiar with the Otego home of 
the Ogdens. The father had become famous as 
a hunter of beaver and a scout. 

Besides the older part of the present cemetery, 
the Cherry Valley fort included the adjacent street 
and some of the land across it. It was large enough 
to contain all the inhabitants of the place, though 
hardly with comfort. Colonel Alden has been blamed 
for not admitting them after the news of November 
9th, and has been partially excused on the ground 
that he was ignorant of Indian methods in war. The 
passages already given from Warren’s Diary hardly 
justify exclusive criticism of Alden. General Hand’s 
visit to Cherry Valley a few days before the attack 
(he was there as late as November 8th), and the un¬ 
fulfilled promises of reinforcements on November 
9th, complicate the problem of official responsibil¬ 
ity. For Colonel Klock’s failure to reach Cherry 
Valley before the massacre no excuse seems pos¬ 
sible. The distance was only twenty miles and the 
road was old and well travelled. When at last he 
did arrive, his orders from General Hand were to 
pursue the enemy “ if he found it practicable.” But 
it appears that “ for want of provisions and ammu¬ 
nition,” and in the belief that “ the enemy had 
gone too far to be overtaken,” he then gave up all 
thought of pursuit and proceeded to disband his 
regiment.* 


Clinton Papers, vol. iv. 

245 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Captain William Harper seems to have voiced 
the sentiments of the inhabitants when he wrote to 
Governor Clinton on December id that Klock 
had come to Cherry Valley, “warmed himself, 
turned about, marched back without affording the 
distressed inhabitants the least assistance or release, 
even to bury the dead, or to collect the small re¬ 
mains of their cattle or goods.” Captain Harper in 
another letter to Governor Clinton, of February 16th 
following, declared that Klock had promised Hand 
that he would send 400 men “ some days before 
the enemy arrived.” When finally he came, he 
“ did not stay above two or three hours, notwith¬ 
standing the enemy had not retired above six or 
seven miles from the settlement.” Captain Har¬ 
per made similar references to Colonel Fisher, who 
arrived the same day as Klock. After the manner 
of Klock, Fisher refused either to stay or to assist 
in burying the dead, or otherwise to relieve the 
distress of the inhabitants. 

General Hand, who had left matters entirely in 
charge of these shrinking militia colonels, was back 
in Albany before the massacre occurred. It is 
quite clear that he failed to take the situation se¬ 
riously. At any rate, he was not clear-sighted in 
his judgment as to its gravity; nor was he vigorous 
in action for giving relief. He shared this neglect, 
however, with many other men with whose com¬ 
mands had gone an obligation to protect the fron¬ 
tier. 

Within the fort Colonel Alden’s body was buried 
with military honors, including the firing of three 
volleys over his grave. A stone still marks this 
burial-place, to which devout pilgrimages have been 
made for more than 100 years. Adjoining this 

246 





THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE 


grave in 1825 was buried the wife of Colonel Clyde, 
and in the digging of the grave Alden’s remains 
were exposed. “ I saw and examined his skull,” 
says Levi Beardsley, “ which was sound as when 
first buried. The tomahawk with which he was 
struck after being shot, had not cut through to the 
brain, but seemed to have glanced off, chipping 
away a portion of the skull. The cavity was dis¬ 
colored with blood and several lines or marks where 
the tomahawk had entered were red and bright. 
Alvin Stewart took away one of the teeth.” 

Had the methods of Brant prevailed in this 
attack, less bloodshed would have occurred. His 
methods were of an honorable kind, warfare by him 
having never been attended by downright massacre, 
but by the taking of prisoners, cattle, and provi¬ 
sions, and the burning of houses and barns. Camp, 
bell narrates incidents showing his humanity at 
Cherry Valley. The most barbarous part of the 
work was done by Tories and the Senecas. The 
Tories incited the Indians to barbarities to which 
by nature they were inclined, while the Senecas 
were led by Hiokatoo, a chief whose unparalleled 
cruelties to his enemies have been admitted by his 
own wife, Mary Jemison. She lived with him for 
nearly half a century. He was a fierce and cruel 
savage who butchered infants, but she says that, al¬ 
though war was his trade from youth till old age 
and decrepitude unfitted him for it, he “ uniformly 
treated me with tenderness and never offered an 
insult.” Hiokatoo had been at Braddock’s defeat, 
where, having taken two prisoners, he burned them 
alive. 

Brant eagerly inquired at Cherry Valley for Cap¬ 
tain McKean, saying he had come to accept his 

247 


THE OLD 


NEW YORK FRONTIER 


challenge. He characterized McKean as “ a fine 
soldier thus to retreat,” and he “ would have given 
more to take him than any other man in Cherry 
Valley, but would not have hurt a hair of his head.” 
Brant, after the war, maintained that he had never 
killed but one man unfairly, and in that case his act 
was due to a misapprehension. He had questioned 
the man, who was a prisoner, and finding him ob¬ 
stinate and apparently untruthful, killed him on the 
spot. Lying, it should be remembered, was an 
offence for which the Iroquois inflicted the punish¬ 
ment of death. Brant was sincerely affected after¬ 
ward when he learned that the man’s conduct was 
due to an impediment in his speech. 

Of Brant’s humanity in the Border Wars many 
stories have been related. He was a Mason and at 
Minisink saved the life of a prisoner who gave him 
the sign of distress. On another occasion he saved 
a Mason who had already been bound to the stake 
and around whom the fagots had been piled. Still 
another case is that of Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan 
Maynard. While stationed at West Point with 
Colonel Alden’s regiment, Maynard had been sent 
out on a scouting expedition and was captured by 
Indians. His companions were bound to trees 
and burned to death, but Maynard having a sword 
was thought to be a prize for whom a ransom could 
be obtained, and accordingly was taken to Unadilla. 
He there gave to Brant the sign of distress and was 
ordered set free.* Another example relates to one 
of Brant’s later campaigns in the Mohawk Valley. 
One day an Indian entered General Van Rensse¬ 
laer’s head-quarters, with an infant in his arms, and 


* Brant MSS. in the Draper Collection. 

248 


THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE 

bearing a message from Brant, containing these 
words: 

I send you by one of my runners the child which he will 
deliver that you may know that whatever others may do I 
do not make war upon women and children. I am sorry 
to say that I have those engaged with me in the service 
who are more savage than the savages themselves. 

The literature of the Border Wars will be searched 
in vain for a defence of the conduct of Walter But¬ 
ler * at Cherry Valley, or of his father, John But¬ 
ler, at Wyoming. Brant included Walter among 
those who were “ more savage than the savages 
themselves.” But it is proper to permit him to 
speak for himself when no one speaks for him. 
Butler wrote to General Clinton in February, 1779 : 

We deny any cruelties to have been committed at Wy¬ 
oming, either by whites or by Indians; so far to the con¬ 
trary, that not a man, woman, or child was hurt after the 
capitulation, or a woman or child before it, and none taken 
into captivity. Though should you call it deep inhuman¬ 
ity, the killing men in arms in the field we in that case 
plead guilty. The inhabitants killed at Cherry Valley do 
not lie at my door. 

These statements are so at variance with well- 
authenticated facts that perhaps the charitable judg¬ 
ment to be passed on Butler is that he was not re¬ 
sponsible either for his acts or his words. 

Colonel Alden’s regiment, or some portion of 
it, was stationed at Cherry Valley for the winter. 

* Perhaps the truest estimate of Butler may be formed after reading 
Harold Frederic’s In the Valley, a story of life on the frontier dur¬ 
ing the Border Wars, the original inspiration for which was derived 
from Horatio Seymour. In the Valley came straight from its author’s 
heart. 


2 4 9 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


McKendry, who remained with it, says that on Janu¬ 
ary 18th he went to Newtown Martin and “ bought 
two stacks of hay from James Bradshaw.” Camp¬ 
bell describes the place as one of utter desolation. 
Cocks crowed from the tops of forest trees, and 
dogs howled through the abandoned fields. 

In departing from the scene of their terrible re¬ 
venge the invaders proceeded directly down Cherry 
Valley Creek, and during the first night slept out in 
the open air about two miles on their way. During 
the following day, the feeble Mrs. Cannon, one of 
the prisoners, was put to death. A contemporary 
newspaper account says Colonel Stacey and others of 
the Continental regiment “ were stripped and driven 
naked before them.” Besides the prisoners, the 
Indians had with them all the horses, cattle, and 
sheep of the settlement. Except Mrs. Campbell and 
her children, and Mrs. Moore and children, all the 
prisoners were eventually sent back to Cherry Valley, 
and the most of them from the first camping place. 

Some of the Senecas invaded Sleeper’s Mills and 
carried away everything they cared to possess except 
some money which Mrs. Sleeper adroitly concealed 
among old rags. Mr. Sleeper was away from home 
at the time, and his wife and ten children were ren¬ 
dered almost destitute. When Brant reached the 
place he said to Mrs. Sleeper, whose family were 
well known to him : “ My God, are you alive ? I 
expected to find all killed. Those Senecas I can’t 
control. They would kill their friends for the sake 
of plunder. They would have killed many more 
in Cherry Valley if it had not been for me.” He 
offered to pay her for the losses she had met with, 
but she declined to receive his money, on the ground 
that it had been taken from other settlers. 

250 


THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE 


Brant and his companions remained in the upper 
valley for two weeks or more after the massacre. 
Among their prisoners was a man named Vrooman, 
whom Brant had formerly known. Wishing to assist 
Vrooman to escape, he sent him up the river on a 
pretence that he wanted him to get some birch bark. 
The man had the honesty, or stupidity, to return 
with the bark, much to the disgust of Brant, who 
was now under the necessity of taking him on the 
journey. At the mouth of the Charlotte, rafts and 
canoes were secured, and in them the remainder of 
the journey was made to Tioga Point, whence the 
whole company proceeded rapidly to Kanadesaga 
and thence to Niagara. 

Soon after the party reached Kanadesaga, the 
Indians celebrated their victory in truly savage 
manner. The facts for an account of it have come 
down to us from Mrs. Campbell, who was a terrified 
witness of the scene. After a grand council, the 
warriors gathered around a great fire in the little 
park in the centre of the village, each with his face 
and parts of his body painted in black and white to 
a hideous extent. Songs were sung in praise of their 
exploits and those of their ancestors, “ by degrees,” 
says Stone, “ working themselves up into a tempest 
of passion; whooping, yelling, and uttering every 
hideous cry; brandishing their knives and war 
clubs and throwing themselves into the most mena- 
cious attitudes in a manner terrific to the unprac¬ 
tised beholders.” Meanwhile the prisoners were 
paraded, the scalps borne in triumph, and for every 
scalp was uttered the scalp yell, or death halloo, 
“the most terrific note which an Indian could 
raise.” The festival closed with the killing of a 
white dog, the burning of the entrails, the roasting 

251 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


of the carcass, and the eating of the same. In this 
manner was celebrated near the site of Geneva the 
most bloody occurrence in the annals of Otsego 
County. 

Mrs. Campbell, while in captivity at Kanadesaga, 
was one day asked by an Indian why she wore a cap. 
She replied that it was a custom among the white 
people. “ Come into my house,” said he, “ and I 
will give you a cap.” She followed him, and after 
taking a cap from behind one of the beams, he re¬ 
marked : “ I got that cap in Cherry Valley. I took 
it from the head of a woman.” Mrs. Campbell at 
once recognized it as having belonged to Jane Wells. 
It was still spotted with blood and showed the cut 
made by the tomahawk. Before her, therefore, 
stood the murderer of a friend whom she had known 
from infancy. Mrs. Campbell’s grandson tells this 
story in his “Annals ofTryon County.” 


252 





PART VI 


The Sullivan Expedition 


1779 











I 


General Clinton at 
Otsego Lake 

1779 


T HESE events created a profound impres¬ 
sion, accustomed though the country was to 
the worst scenes and calamities of war. 
General Gates’s share in the responsibilities has 
already been indicated. It is made impressively 
clear in the Clinton correspondence.* After many 
appeals and warnings. Gates finally had written to 
General Stark on April 17, 1778, that “ in case of 
any sudden irruption of the enemy,” Stark was em¬ 
powered to call upon such militiamen, “ as will en¬ 
able you to repel every hostile invasion ”—directions 
which make all too evident Gates’s failure to un¬ 
derstand the methods that Indians employed in 
warfare. Such military action would, indeed, have 
been merely to lock the door after the horse had 
been stolen. What the frontier needed was men to 
guard it against attack, not men to be sent to its 
defence after destruction had been done and the 
enemy had taken to the woods. 

James Duane had warned Congress early in 1778 
that an irruption would occur. His letter at the 
time was duly transmitted to Gates, but Duane, on 
June 6th, complained bitterly to Governor Clin¬ 
ton that “ to the misfortune of the country it has 

* Vol. iii., passim. 


2 55 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


not been attended to.” Two weeks later Governor 
Clinton complained that Gates had required of him 
a large proportion of the militia to reinforce the 
army under his command. But Clinton had disre¬ 
garded the order to the extent of sending one bri ¬ 
gade to the frontier in spite of Gates. On August 
ioth he wrote to Duane that it was “ to be regretted 
that the operations which were intended by Con¬ 
gress against the Indians have been hitherto so 
utterly neglected by the commanding officer of the 
Northern Department.” 

Some responsibility lies at the door of General 
Stark. When Colonel William Butler proposed to 
Stark the plan he had made for an expedition to 
Unadilla, Stark did not favor it, although it had 
received Governor Clinton’s approval. Governor 
Clinton wrote that he was “ more than ever con¬ 
vinced that offensive operations against the savages 
and Tories are absolutely necessary,” and regretted 
“ that the plan had not already been carried into ex¬ 
ecution, especially as (if I know the man) it must 
have been much better than any he can devise.” On 
October 12th, when complaints continued to pour 
in from the frontier, the Governor wrote to Colonel 
Klock that, upon the first appearance of hostilities, 
he had applied to Washington for Continental 
troops and had secured two regiments. Moreover, 
he had ordered that one-fourth of the militia be 
stationed on the frontier. If these troops had been 
improperly placed, so that they failed to give the 
protection needed, it was “ the fault of the com¬ 
manding officer at Albany, and not in my power to 
correct.” 

A month before this the Governor had written to 
Washington complaining of Stark. He had re- 

256 


CLINTON AT OTSEGO LAKE 


ceived two letters from Stark, “ neither of any con¬ 
sequence.” From these and from “common re¬ 
ports of the inhabitants,” supported by complaints 
from a civil officer of the State, Clinton could only 
conclude that Stark had “ paid a greater share of 
attention to the support and encouragement of the 
disaffected subject of this State on the Grants * in es¬ 
tablishing their usurped government than to the de¬ 
fence of the Western frontier and protection of its 
inhabitants.” Hand had afterward succeeded Stark, 
but he likewise had failed to provide any real defence. 

The protection of the frontier was now to be con¬ 
fided to other men than Gates or Stark or Hand. It 
was decided that the general government must strike 
a blow that would crush out completely the warlike 
spirit on the frontier. But how terribly had the 
frontier suffered in order to teach that lesson, and 
what warnings had not been given ? While this cor¬ 
respondence had been going on, the battle of Cobles- 
kill had occurred. Springfield and German Flatts 
had been burned. Wyoming and Cherry Valley had 
been visited by massacre. 

In the spring of 1779 an act was passed by the 
Legislature providing for 1,000 men for purposes 
of defence, these men to continue in service until 
the following January and to be allowed the same 
pay and rations as the Continental army. But the 
Continental Congress, under the approval of Wash¬ 
ington, decided to make a national campaign, and 
to Washington was given the direction of it. It 
was planned to consist of two divisions, one under 
General Sullivan, which was to cross from Easton 

* What were known as the New Hampshire Grants, concerning which 
for many years there has been much bitter contest between New York 
and the Green Mountain boys, now temporarily in suspense owing to the 
war with England. 

257 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


to the Susquehanna, and thence ascend the river to 
Tioga Point, while the other, under General James 
Clinton, now in command at Albany and a brother 
of the Governor, was to proceed up the Mohawk to 
Canajoharie, crossing to Otsego Lake, and going 
thence down the Susquehanna to Tioga Point, 
where the two expeditions were to unite in a com¬ 
bined attack on the Indian settlements in Western 
New York. 

Of the men raised by New York, only 150 were 
added to General Clinton’s force, which in all com¬ 
prised about 1,800 men,* with three months’ pro¬ 
visions and 220 boats.*j* From Albany General 
Clinton gave orders that the boats should meet him 
at Schenectady and that 300 or 400 horses should 
be ready at Canajoharie “ to transport the boats and 
stores across the carrying place to Lake Otsego, the 
place of embarkation.” On arrival at Canajoharie 
the brigade went into camp. Here were tried by 
court-martial as spies Lieutenant Henry Hare and 
Sergeant Newberry, who were convicted and hanged. 
They had wives and children who begged for their 

* Some of the journals of the expedition say 1,500 men, some 1,800, 
and some 2,000. 

t The brigade was composed of detachments from the Third New 
York regiment, of which Peter Gansevoort was colonel, Marinus Willett, 
lieutenant-colonel, and Leonard Bleecker one of the captains; the Fourth 
New York, of which Frederick Weissenfels was lieutenant-colonel, and 
Rudolphus van Flovenburg one of the lieutenants ; the Fifth New York, 
of which Lewis Dubois was colonel; the Fourth Pennsylvania, of which 
William Butler was lieutenant-colonel, Erkuries Beatty a lieutenant, 
and William Gray one of the captains; the Sixth Massachusetts (Colo¬ 
nel Alden’s), of which Daniel Whiting was the major commanding, 
William McKendry a lieutenant, and Benjamin Warren a captain ; one 
or two companies of artillery, of which Thomas Machin was captain, and 
a volunteer corps under Colonel John Harper. Machin was employed 
during the war as an engineer in the construction of the historic chain 
that was stretched across the Hudson to prevent the British from ascend¬ 
ing the stream beyond West Point. He afterward coined money for 
the several States in a workshop five miles back of Newburg. 


CLINTON AT OTSEGO LAKE 


lives in vain. Newberry had been an “ active par¬ 
ticipant in the massacre of Cherry Valley,” where, 
with a hatchet, he had killed a child ten or twelve 
years old. When the Erie Canal was built, nearly 
fifty years later, his bones and those of a man 
named Titus, who had been shot as a deserter, were 
thrown out by the workmen. 

On June 17th Major Whiting, at Cherry Valley, 
received orders to proceed to Otsego Lake with the 
regiment of the late Colonel Alden. He set out on 
the following day, encamping that night in Spring- 
field. Here, says McKendry, Whiting “ ordered a 
fatiguing party on to mend the roads toward the 
lake,” and on the following day the regiment itself 
marched to the lake. Of Clinton’s coming from 
Canajoharie, Lieutenant Van Hovenburg, in his 
journal, says that on June 16th his regiment, then 
at Canajoharie, “ marched about five miles on the 
Cherry Valley road and encamped there that night.” 
On the following day they marched four miles, and 
on the 19th “escorted stores to Springfield,” while 
the rifle corps went to escort the stores to Lake 
Otsego. On the 24th McKendry says “ boats and 
provisions arrive at this lake very fast, 500 wagons 
going very steady.” * 

* It is obvious from these contemporary records that General Clinton 
did not open any new road from the Mohawk to Lake Otsego, as several 
writers have said, among them Cooper, Campbell, and Gould. “After 
ascending the Mohawk as far as Fort Plain,” says Cooper, “ the brigade 
cut a road through the forest to the head of Lake Otsego, whither it trans¬ 
ported its boats.” Campbell described the road as constructed “from 
Canajoharie tothe head of Otsego Lake, distant twenty miles,” and says 
its opening was “ effected with great labor.” Gould followed these state¬ 
ments. The obvious fact is that General Clinton employed the old road 
to Cherry Valley from the Mohawk and other roads near the lake con¬ 
structed many years before the war. The one still known as the Conti¬ 
nental road, and leading to the lake near the mouth of Shadow Brook 
in Hyde Bay, was doubtless among those which were mended by the 
fatiguing party sent out by Major Whiting. 

259 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


While the brigade lay at the head of the lake, 
David Elerson, of Colonel Butler’s regiment, met 
with a thrilling adventure described by Stone. He 
wandered off one day to an old clearing a few miles 
distant, when suddenly ten or twelve Indians ap¬ 
peared and sought to take him captive. As he 
fled, tomahawks were hurled after him, one of them 
wounding his arm. For hours he was pursued 
through the forest; once he was wounded and once 
he killed an Indian. Finally he hid himself in the 
hollow trunk of a hemlock-tree, and spent two days 
there without food. On emerging he found that 
he had lost the points of the compass, but he took 
what seemed the most promising course, to find 
himself at last in Cobleskill, distant twenty-five 
miles from the lake. 

At the outlet of the lake General Clinton met with 
a serious obstacle to his progress. The river was 
too shallow and narrow to permit the boats to pass 
out, and for some distance down was filled with 
flood-wood and fallen trees. As soon as the regi¬ 
ment from Cherry Valley had reached Hyde Bay, 
“ a party of men,” says McKendry, writing on 
June 2ist, “was ordered by Colonel Butler to the 
foot of the lake to dam the same, that the water 
might be raised to carry the boats down the Susque¬ 
hanna River. Captain Warren commanded the 
party.” By this dam the surface of the lake was 
raised about three feet, according to one account, 
about one foot, according to another, and “ at least 
two,” according to General Clinton. Some of the 
logs used in building the dam were still in their 
places fifty years later. Simms records certain tra¬ 
ditions of the country that, in order further to in¬ 
crease the flow of water, a party was sent to open a 

260 


CLINTON AT OTSEGO LAKE 


beaver dam which held the waters of Schuyler’s 
Lake. “ This invasion of private property under a 
plea of public necessity,” remarks Hough in his 
notes to Bleeker’s book, “ was resented by the 
beavers, who, as soon as the party had gone, set 
themselves at work to repair the dam in the night, 
and before morning had restored it complete.” 
After that experience a guard was “ stationed to pro¬ 
tect the point against further molestation.” 

The entire brigade had reached the site of Coo- 
perstown by July 5th. One regiment went over¬ 
land by way of Cherry Valley, the others all by 
water. Lieutenant Erkuries Beatty,* in his journal, 
says a part of the expedition encamped “on the site 
of Croghan’s house ” and “ found a very fine chest 
containing carpenter’s tools, books, papers, etc., con¬ 
cealed in a thicket, and covered with bark,” which 
was supposed to be the property of Croghan, “ who 
formerly lived here, but is gone to the enemy.” 
General Clinton himself arrived on July 2d, when 
he was glad to inform the Governor that he believed 
such a quantity of stores and baggage “ had never 
before been transported over so bad a road in so 
short a time and with less accidents.” 

The brigade remained here until August 8th, a 
period of four weeks, awaiting orders from General 
Sullivan. On July 4th the third anniversary of 
Independence was celebrated, the General “being 
pleased to order that all troops under his command 
should draw a gill of rum per man, extraordinary, in 
memory of that happy event.” The Rev. John 

\ 

* Beatty, or Beattie, had taken part in the battles of Long Island, 
Germantown, and Monmouth, and was at Valley Forge and the sur¬ 
render of Cornwallis. His father was a clergyman, who got the singular 
name Erkuries from the Greek, in which tongue it signifies “from the 
Lord.” 


26l 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER i 

Gano, a Baptist clergyman from New York City, 
the chaplain of the brigade, preached from the text, 

“ This day shall be a memorial unto you through¬ 
out your generation.” Three men were put on 
trial for desertion, convicted, and sentenced to be 
shot. Two of them were afterward pardoned, but 
the third, Anthony Dunnavan, who had previously 
deserted from the British army, and had advised the 
two other men, both younger than he, to desert with 
him from General Clinton’s brigade, was shot at a 
place on the west side of the outlet near the lake. 
General Clinton said his conduct sufficiently showed 
that he was “ unfit to serve either his king or his 
country.” On the arrival of James Deane,* on July 
5th, with thirty-five friendly Oneidas, who came 
to “ apologize for the absence of their brethren,” 
due to a threatened invasion of their country from 
Canada, the General requested the soldiers to be 
careful “ not to insult the Indians who are in camp, 
nor crowd about them.” On July 29th great joy 
prevailed on receipt of news that Anthony Wayne 
had made his successful assault on Stony Point. 

* So printed in The Order Book of Captain Bleeker, but apparently an 
error for James Duane, the Indian commissioner. 




II 


Brant’s Return and the 
Battle of Minisink 

1779 

B EFORE narrating the journey of General 
Clinton from Otsego Lake to Tioga Point, it 
is necessary to revert to the doings of Brant 
and the Indians during the spring and early summer 
of the same year. At Niagara, before the winter 
ended, Brant had in vain sought to win over the 
Oneidas and Tuscaroras for a descent upon the 
Mohawk Valley. In February some Oneidas 
brought news to Try on County of his projected ex¬ 
pedition, the main part of which Brant was himself 
to lead to the Mohawk, while another part was to 
go down the Unadilla River and proceed thence to 
the Schoharie settlements. Governor Clinton wrote 
to the New York delegates in Congress of his help¬ 
less condition, and expressing fears lest the Hudson 
River “ become our western boundary.” 

General Clinton, then in command at Albany, 
determined to send Colonel Van Schaick to Fort 
Schuyler at once, and thence westward to Onondaga. 
With 558 men Van Schaick set out on April 17th, 
and wrought great destruction at the Council House. 
Proceeding westward by way of Oneida Lake, he 
descended upon the Indian villages lying south of 
it. “We took thirty-eight Indians and one white 
prisoner,” says Captain Machin, in his journal, “ and 
killed twelve Indians. The whole of their settlement, 

263 







THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


consisting of about fifty houses, with a quantity of 
corn and every other kind of stock, was destroyed,” 
while about ioo guns, some of which were rifles, 
were among the plunder, “ the whole of which, after 
the men had loaded with as much as they could 
carry, was destroyed, with a considerable quantity of 
ammunition.” Many Indians escaped “ by a pre¬ 
cipitate flight through the woods.” Not a man in 
the command was killed or wounded. 

While this expedition was in the Onondaga 
country, parties of Indians were making attacks on 
the frontier. Near the middle of April a band of 
forty descended upon Lackawaxen and burned the 
settlement, besides other houses in that part of the 
Delaware Valley. Meanwhile sixty Indians ap¬ 
peared on the Mohawk; one party captured two 
prisoners in Schoharie; another killed two persons 
near Stone Arabia ; another took five scalps at Fort 
Dayton, while another made two prisoners near Fort 
Plank. General Clinton himself now hastened up 
the valley and wrote to his brother that but for the 
appearance of his troops, he believed Schenectady 
“would have become the frontier of the State.” * 

About June ist a party of six Oghwaga Indians 
reached the old settlement now called Sharon Center, 
and took two prisoners to Oghwaga. Of this inci¬ 
dent, McKendry, writing on June ist, at Cherry 
Valley, says : 

This day was informed, not many days agone six Indians 
took two men prisoners from Turloughf (12 miles from 
Fort Alden) [Cherry Valley], carried them as far as Ocqu- 
augo, where two of the Indians left the party to go on to in- 

* Clinton Papers, vol. iv. 

tAlso written Torlock and Durlagh, and afterward named Sharon 
Center. 

264 


BRANT’S RETURN 


form their brothers of their success; when the four that 
were left got asleep, the two prisoners took their hatchets 
and killed two of the Indians; the other two awoke, and 
started ; the white men, being too many for them, wounded 
them both and the two Indians fled. The two late prison¬ 
ers took the Indians’ arms of the dead and those that had 
fled with only their lives, and made their escape. The 
Indians soon were alarmed in that quarter, and came to the 
ground, set the woods all on fire, so that they might dis¬ 
cover their tracks, that had made their escape, but to no 
purpose ; the two late English prisoners escaped clear. I 
have had the pleasure since to see the man that killed the 
two Indians. It was Mr. Sawyer. 

On June 18th news was received that 450 reg¬ 
ular troops, 100 Tories, and 30 Indians had been 
sent from Montreal to reinforce those Indians, al¬ 
ready in the country, against whom the Sullivan 
expedition had been sent. They had collected at 
Buck, or Carleton, Island, near the western end of the 
St. Lawrence, where they had four large lake vessels, 
and two others were ready for launching.* On 
June 25th it was learned that a force of 300 Ind¬ 
ians and a few Tories, under Brant, had left Cayuga 
for the Susquehanna, where they intended to hang 
about General Clinton’s line of march, and harass 
his movements down to Tioga Point, near which, at 
Newtown, they intended to make a stand. 

Thus, with the opening of the summer, Brant at 
Oghwaga, or Unadilla, was awaiting the coming of 
General Clinton from the lake. He found the val¬ 
ley a difficult place to live in, after the destruction 
done by Colonel Butler in the previous autumn, and 
it became necessary to penetrate to more prosper¬ 
ous settlements in order to find food. The most 

* Clinton Papers, vol. iv. 

265 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


important of his doings was the invasion of Mini¬ 
sink, * which the departure of Count Pulaski for 
South Carolina, in the previous February, had left 
wholly unprotected. After waiting a month for 
General Clinton to move, he set out from Oghwaga 
by way of the trail to Cookoze and thence followed 
the Delaware down to the ancient settlement in 
the Neversink Valley below Port Jervis. He had 
with him sixty Indians, and twenty-seven Tories 
disguised as Indians. Surprising the settlement, 
he burned ten houses and twelve barns, besides 
two mills and a fort; drove away the cattle, took 
other booty, killed four men, and captured three 
prisoners. Brant’s letter to Colonel Bolton, *j* writ¬ 
ten from Oghwaga on July 29th, after his return, de¬ 
scribes as follows the work he did at the settlement: 

I beg leave to acquaint you that I arrived here last night 
from Minisink, and was a good deal disappointed that I could 
not get into that place at the time I wished to do—a little be¬ 
fore day; instead of which I did not arrive till noon, when 
all the cattle was in the woods, so that we could get but 
a few of them. We have burned all the settlement called 
Minisink, one fort excepted, round which we lay before 
about an hour, and had one man killed and one wounded. 
We destroyed several small stockaded forts, and took four 
scalps and three prisoners, but did not in the least injure 
women or children. The reason that we could not take 


* Dr. Beauchamp gives the translation, Land from which the Water 
Has Gone ; but suggests that it may be fanciful. Stone describes it as 
one of the most ancient of inland American towns. As early as July 22, 
1669, It had had troubles with Indians, having then suffered a visitation 
“ the bloody horrors of which yet live in the traditions of the neighbor¬ 
hood.” 

t Bolton was the British commander at Fort Niagara. In October, 
1780, he sailed from that place in a new vessel called the Ontario. 
About midnight, in a violent storm, when near one of the islands at the 
entrance to the St. Lawrence, the ship was wrecked. Every soul on 
board, including Bolton, and numbering about 120, was lost. 

266 


BATTLE OF MINISINK 


more of them was owing to the many forts about the 
place, into which they were always ready to run like ground 
hogs.* 

Brant remained at Minisink over night, and at 
eight o’clock on the following day, July 22d, began 
his retreat up the Delaware. He had reached a 
point near Lackawaxen,f and was preparing to cross 
the stream on his way to the Susquehanna Valley, 
when a body of 149 men, comprising the militia of 
the Minisink region, including Goshen, overtook 
him, and a memorable engagement, heretofore often 
referred to as a massacre, took place. That it was 
not properly a massacre, has already been pointed 
out by Mr. Nanny, who based his account of the 
battle on Brant’s unpublished letter to Colonel 
Bolton, quoted above, which proceeds to say : 

I left this place [Minisink] about 8 o’clock the next 
day, and marched fifteen miles. There are two roads—one 
through the woods, the other alongside the river. We were 
coming up this road next morning, and I sent two men to 
examine the other, the only way that the rebels could 
come to attack us. These men found the enemy’s path 
not far from our camp, and discovered that they had got 
1 before to lay in ambush. The two rascals were afraid 
when they saw the path, and did not return to inform us, 
so that the rebels had fair play at us. They fired on the 
front of our people when crossing the river. I was then 
about four hundred yards in the rear. As soon as the firing 
began, I immediately marched up a hill in their rear with 
forty men, and came round on their backs. The rest of 
my men were all scattered on the other side. However, 
the rebels soon retreated, and I pursued them until they 

* Brant’s letter is among the Sparks Manuscripts at Harvard. 

t For this word, Dr. Beauchamp gives the translation, Forks of the 
Road. 

267 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


stopped upon a rocky hill, round which we were em¬ 
ployed, and very busy, near four hours. We have taken 
forty-odd scalps and one prisoner. I suppose the enemy 
have lost near half of their men and most of their officers. 
They all belonged to the militia, and were about 150 in 
number. 

Stone, commenting on the censure of Brant which 
this battle called forth, says Brant always maintained 
that his conduct “ had been the subject of unjust re¬ 
proach,” and makes the following statement in his 
behalf: 

Having obtained the supplies he needed, his own object 
was accomplished. Brant also stated that on the near ap¬ 
proach of the Americans, he rose and, presenting himself 
openly and fairly to their view, addressed himself to their 
commanding officer, and demanded their surrender, promis¬ 
ing at the same time to treat them kindly as prisoners of war. 
He assured them frankly that his force in ambush was suf¬ 
ficient to overpower and destroy them ; that then, before any 
blood had been shed, he could control his warriors, but 
should the battle commence, he could not answer for the 
consequences. But, he said, while he was thus parleying 
with them, he was fired upon and narrowly escaped being 
shot down, the ball piercing the outer fold of his belt. Im¬ 
mediately upon receiving the shot he retired and secreted 
himself among his warriors. The militia, emboldened by 
his disappearance, seeing no other enemy, and disbelieving 
what he had told them, rushed forward heedlessly until they 
were completely within his power. 

Both sides in this engagement fought in the Ind¬ 
ian manner—every man for himself, from behind 
rocks and trees. Among the slain were some of the 
best citizens of all the Minisink region. On that 
rocky hill-side, about one mile from Lackawaxen, 
their bones lay for more than forty years, practically 

26 8 





BATTLE OF MINISINK 


unburied. What remained of these bones were 
gathered up in 1822, and, followed by 12,000 people, 
received honorable burial in Goshen, where a monu¬ 
ment now records their names, forty-four in number. 
After the battle, thirty-three women, members of 
the Presbyterian Church in Goshen, wore widows’ 
garments. Brant buried his dead after the battle. 
Some of the bones of these Indians were uncovered 
at the time of digging the Delaware and Hudson 
Canal. 

Brant’s letter adds that on reaching Oghwaga he 
learned that General Sullivan “ perhaps by this time 
may be at Shimong, where I have sent my party to 
remain till I join them.” He himself was just set¬ 
ting out with eight men for the Mohawk River, “in 
order to discover the enemies’ motions.” General 
Clinton was still at the foot of Otsego Lake, with 
ten days longer to remain. Brant proceeded up the 
Unadilla River to the Mohawk, where he captured 
a man named John House. House became lame 
from marching, and the Indians prepared to kill him, 
but Brant ordered that he be released on a promise 
of neutrality. One of General Clinton’s scouts 
afterward found House, and the day before the de¬ 
parture from the lake, brought him into camp. 
House had particulars of the threatened invasion 
from Canada by way of Buck Island. Fort Schuy¬ 
ler was to be attacked. 

Another incident of the same weeks relates to Job 
Stiles, who, with a companion, made a cross-country 
journey as messenger from General Sullivan to 
General Clinton. Fearing to pass up the Susque¬ 
hanna beyond the mouth of the Chenango, they 
turned their course up to the forks of the Chenango, 
and thence went across the wilderness to the lake. 

269 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Wilkinson says they were two weeks in making this 
journey, and, owing to the heavy rains, suffered 
much from exposure. Each had a copy of the mes¬ 
sage, concealed in a handkerchief, in one of his arm- 
pits. 


2JO 




Ill 


General Clinton’s Descent of 
the Susquehanna 

1779 


G ENERAL CLINTON’S start for Tioga 
Point was made on a Monday, Mr. Gano 
having preached on Sunday from the text, 
“ Being ready to depart on the morrow.” Steps for 
the departure were taken on Sunday after the ser¬ 
vices closed, when, as Mr. Gano has described the 
scene, “ the general rose up and ordered each cap¬ 
tain to appoint a certain number of men out of his 
company to draw the boats from the lake and 
string them along the Susquehanna below the dam, 
and load them that they might be ready to depart 
the next morning.” After the dam had been opened 
several hours, the swell occasioned in the river 
“ served to carry the boats over the shoals and flats, 
which would have been impossible otherwise.” 

The season had been in want of rain and “ it was 
therefore matter of great astonishment to the inhabi¬ 
tants down the river for above a hundred miles what 
could have occasioned such a freshet in the river.” 
Stone says the valley was “ wild and totally unin¬ 
habited except by scattered families of Indians, and 
here and there by some few of the more adventu¬ 
rous white settlers in the neighborhood of Unadilla.” 
These latter were Tories. Stone adds that the 
sudden swelling of the river, the flood being large 
even down to Oghwaga, “ bearing upon its surge a 

271 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


flotilla of more than two hundred vessels, through 
a region of primitive forests and upon a stream that 
had never before wafted upon its bosom any craft 
of greater burden than a bark canoe,* was a spec¬ 
tacle which might well appal the untutored inhabi¬ 
tants of the region thus invaded.” It has even been 
said that this rise in the water was great enough to 
cause the Chemung River at Tioga Point to reverse 
its course. 

Mr. Gano says the soldiers marched on both sides 
of the river, except that the invalids were placed in 
the boats with the baggage and provisions. The 
light infantry and rifle corps under Colonel Butler 
formed an advance guard, and were to proceed, says 
Bleeker, as “ discovering parties,” and were to 
govern their march “ so as not to quit sight of the 
front of the line of march if possible, and the woods 
will permit.” A guard was to follow the rear 
line of the boats and, like the advance guard, was 
not to quit sight of the boats “ unless by unavoid¬ 
able circumstances, as swampy roads, etc.” In the 
centre of the land line was to go the remainder of 
the land force with all the horses and cattle, the 
marching being “ in two columns, or Indian files, 
wherever the roads will not permit it otherwise, with 
the cattle betwixt the columns.” Each regiment 
was to have its due proportion of boats, and in each 
boat were to go three men. An elaborate system of 
signals was established to meet emergencies such as 
the front line going so fast that the rear boats would 
be lost sight of. Full instructions were issued for 
action in case an enemy appeared. 

* The trader’s “ battoe ” had been in these waters for more than fifty 
years, and pioneers had traversed them in the same kind of boats for at 
least ten years. 

272 























CLINTON ON THE SUSQUEHANNA 


On August 9th the army reached Camp Demes¬ 
ses, sixteen miles from the lake, and on August 10th 
“ Jochum’s farm,” * twenty miles by land from the 
lake. From this farm the General wrote to his 
brother that “ the troops have advanced thus far 
without the least accident, in perfect health and high 
spirits.” The most distressing parts of the river had 
been passed, “ so I expect to arrive at Anaquegha the 
15th.” On August nth the army was at Ogden’s 
farm, “36 miles from the lake,” and on August 
12th “ at Unondila, 52 miles from the lake.” These 
distances are many miles in excess of the distances 
by present roads. They gave reckonings based 
apparently on the winding river’s course. 

On leaving camp at Ogden’s farm it was ordered 
that the boats be “ started three abreast and the whole 
at a close distance,” the river by this time having be¬ 
come broad enough to admit of doing so. Here it 
was ordered that “ all the troops receive one gill of 
rum and each officer one quart.” Another day 
brought the expedition past the site of Unadilla 
village and into camp on the Sidney side of the Sus¬ 
quehanna, the river being crossed at nightfall from 
the ruins of the Unadilla settlement. Lieutenant 
Van Hovenburg describes as follows the first stages 
of the journey: 

Camp Lake Otsego, Aug. 9. The army under com¬ 
mand of Gen. Clinton struck camp and loaded our baggage 
on board the batteau and proceeded down the Susquehanna 
river as far as Burris farm. The troops f marched, all ex¬ 
cept three men to each boat; we had 250 boats and quar- 

* Van Valkenburgh’s. 

t The Camp Demesses of Bleeker’s Order Book. Elsewhere in the 
journals written Burrows. Lieutenant McKendry calls the place “ Mr. 
Cully’s farm,” referring to Matthew Cully, the Cherry Valley man, who 
settled there. 


2 73 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


tered them that night and remained there the greater part of 
the next day on account of the rain, which is 15 miles. 

Burris Farm, Aug. 10. Decamped at about three p. m., 
and loaded our baggage and proceeded on our march about 
5 miles, to Joachim Valkenburgh place and encamped there 
that night—ratel snakes plenty, very good soil. 

Bleeker calls this place “ Camp Jachim’s farm,” 
and General Clinton writes “ Camp Jacum’s farm,” 
while Lieutenant Beatty describes it as “Jorkam’s,” 
and Lieutenant McKendry as “ Yokeum’s.” In 
General Clinton’s letter, written from this camp on 
August 10th, he refers to the farm as “ 20 miles by 
land from Lake Otsego and five miles above the 
Adenquetangay Branch,” which identifies the farm 
as land above Colliers. The Gray map places 
“ Youchem’s ” just north of the mouth of Schenevus 
Creek. It lay on the east side of the Susquehanna: 

Susquehanna river, Valkenburgh place, Aug. 11. De¬ 
camped and loaded our baggage and proceeded on our march 
as far as two miles below an Indian place called Otago which 
was completed twenty miles. 

Otago, Aug. 12. We decamped at about five in the 
morning and proceeded on our march as far as Unedelly, 
and encamped on the south side of the river, and most extra¬ 
ordinary good land and most beautiful situation. 

Unedelly, Aug. 13. We decamped in the morning early 
and marched out at 5 o’clock as far as a beautiful island 
called Gunna Gunta, and encamped there, which was about 
12 miles. There were apples plenty at this place. 

Beatty’s account of the journey down to Oghwaga 
contains the following passages: 

Aug. 10. Marched at 3 o’clock and went five miles, to 
Yokams, where we encamped; the men in the boats en¬ 
camped on the farm, which lies on the east side of the river, 
and the remainder on the side opposite. 

274 


CLINTON ON THE SUSQUEHANNA 


Wednesday, n. Marched 4 this morning, sunrise, and 
proceeded on 14 miles down the river, where we encamped 
on a small farm ; passed several small farms to-day with 
very poor houses on them, and some none. The riflemen 
in front saw fresh Indian tracks to-day in the path and found 
a knife at one of their fires. To-day we crossed a large 
creek called Otego and passed several old Indian encamp¬ 
ments where they had encamped when they were going to 
destroy Cherry Valley, or returning. Likewise we passed 
one of their encampments yesterday—we encamped to-night 
at Ogden’s farm, and very bad encamping ground. 

Thursday, 12. Proceeded down the west side of the river 
as usual; 12 miles came to a small Scotch settlement called 
Albout * on the other side of the river, five miles from Una- 
dilla, which we burnt; but the people had gone to the enemy 
this last spring; went on to Unadilla; crossed the river to the 
east side and encamped ; the river was at middle deep where 
we waded it. The settlement was destroyed by our detach¬ 
ment last fall, excepting one house which belonged to one 
Glasford, who went to the enemy this spring. His house 
was immediately burnt, when we came to the ground to-day. 
We passed several old Indian encampments where they en¬ 
camped when they destroyed Cherry Valley; the road mid¬ 
dling hilly. 

Friday, 13. This morning very foggy and a great deal of 
dew. Marched at 6 o’clock; went 2 miles, wading the 
river at three feet deep; proceeded on to Conehunto, a 
small Indian town that was, but was destroyed by our de¬ 
tachment last fall. It is fourteen miles from Unadilla. A 
little below this town there are three or four islands f in the 
river where the Indians raised their corn ; on one of these 
islands our troops encamped with the boats and cattle. The 
light infantry went two miles from Conehunto, where they 
encamped a little after three o’clock, in the woods. Mid¬ 
dle good road to-day. 

* The settlement at the mouth of the Ouleout. 

t One of these islands is the Stowell, or Chamberlain, Island of later 
times, near Afton. 

275 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Saturday 14. Marched this morning at 8 o’clock; very 
hilly road for the right flank ; arrived at the ford two miles 
from Oghwaga about 2 o’clock, which is eight miles from 
where we started. The ford being too deep to wade, crossed 
in our boats to the east side ; went over a high hill * and 
got to Oghwaga at three o’clock, when we encamped on 
very pretty ground. This town was one of the neatest of 
the Indians living on the Susquehanna. It was built on the 
east side of the river, with good log houses, with stone chim¬ 
neys and glass windows. It likewise had a church and bury¬ 
ing ground and a great number of apple trees, and we likewise 
saw the ruins of an old fort, which formerly was here for 
many years. 

Of Oghwaga, McKendry says : “It lay pleasantly 
situated on both sides of the river and on an island in 
the centre of the ruins of about 60 houses, which 
appear by the cellars and walls that it was a fine set¬ 
tlement before it was destroyed, considering that they 
were Indians. One English family lived with them.” 
Beyond Oghwaga several Indian towns were de¬ 
stroyed before a junction with Sullivan was made at 
Tioga Point—Ingaren having five or six houses, a 
tannery, fields of corn and potatoes ; Shawhiangto, 
with ten or twelve houses ; Otseningo, with twenty 
houses; Chenang, and Owego, with several, and 
Choconut j* with fifty. 

From Tioga Point General Sullivan sent forward 
1,000 men to meet General Clinton’s force, of 
whose approach word had reached him. The meet¬ 
ing of the two armies took place at Union, and 
hence the name. General Clinton’s arrival at Tioga 
Point was celebrated with salvos of artillery, much 

* Still known as Oghwaga Hill. Opposite this eminence lies the vil¬ 
lage of Ouaquaga, in the town of Colesville. 

t Place of Tamaracks was the meaning Cusick gave to Dr. Beau¬ 
champ. 


276 


CLINTON ON THE SUSQUEHANNA 


music and cheers. Especially welcome was a large 
store of provisions which he brought with him. 
When Washington, then at Newburg, learned that 
Clinton had departed for Otsego Lake, he became 
anxious lest the delay involved in transporting his 
provisions should enable the Indians to rally all 
their strength and successfully oppose him. Wash¬ 
ington had understood that Clinton would take 
such supplies only as would be needed for a rapid 
march. But the event proved how fortunate had 
been General Clinton’s action. General Sullivan 
was delayed in reaching Wyoming and had written 
to General Clinton that “ the commissaries have 
deceived us in every article.” In case Clinton were 
depending upon him “ we must all starve together.” 


277 


IV 


Iroquois Civilization 
Overturned 

1779 

N OW was to follow that campaign of ruthless 
destruction in Western and Central New 
York which has been likened to Sherman’s 
march to the sea, although in the difficulties pre¬ 
sented in the country which Sullivan traversed there 
was a great contrast rather than a parallel. From 
Tioga Point the combined force, numbering about 
3,200 men, moved along the north bank of the 
Chemung River, reaching the old Indian town of 
Chemung * on August 27th. 

Brant meanwhile had retreated from the Mohawk 
in time to join the main body of the Indians andTo- 
ries and become a leader at the approaching battle of 
Newtown, where, before he arrived, the Indians and 
Tories, with whom were Colonel John Butler, Sir 
John Johnson, Walter Butler, and Captain McDon¬ 
ald, had thrown up embankments more than half a 
mile long, with the pits carefully concealed by newly 
cut trees. On August 19th, the day Clinton reached 
Owego, Brant wrote the following letter from “ Shi- 
mong,” little conscious that, in the Newtown fight, 
and the events that followed, the People of the Long 
H ouse would meet such overwhelming disaster: 

I am deeply afflicted. John Tayojaronsere, my trusty 
chief, is dead. He died eight days after he was wounded. 
* The meaning of this word is Big Horn. 

278 






INDIAN HOMES LAID WASTE 


Five met the same fate. I am very much troubled by the 
event, because he was of so much assistance to me. I de¬ 
stroyed Onawatoge a few days afterward. We were carry¬ 
ing off two prisoners. We were overtaken and 1 was 
wounded in the foot with buck shot, but it is of small con¬ 
sequence. I am almost well. 

We are in daily expectation of a battle which we think 
will be a severe one. We expect to number about 700 
to-day. We do not quite know the number of the Bos¬ 
tonians already stationed about eight miles from here. We 
think there are 2,000 beside those at Otsego, represented to 
consist of two regiments. This is why there will be a battle 
either to-morrow or the day after. Then we shall begin to 
know what is to become of the People of the Long House. 

Our minds have not changed. We are determined to 
fight the Bostonians. Of course their intention is to ex¬ 
terminate the People of the Long House. The seven na¬ 
tions will continue to kill and devastate the whole length of 
the river we formerly resided on. I greet your wife. I hope 
she is still well and that you yourself may also be well.* 

On August 29th was fought the battle of New¬ 
town on a hillside overlooking the river near which 
on fertile bottom lands were growing from 150 to 
200 acres of corn, now almost ready to be gathered. 
With the enemy waiting behind their embankments, 
fire was opened by Sullivan’s artillery—six three- 
pounders and two Howitzers, carrying five-and-a- 
half-inch shells—a form of warfare especially terrible 
to an Indian, for whom the noise of cannon had ex¬ 
ceptional horrors. Of Brant’s conduct on this field 
much in laudation has been written, and perhaps 
nothing finer than the following by Mr. Craft: 

Such was the commanding presence of the great Ind¬ 
ian captain and such the degree of confidence he inspired 

* Addressed to Colonel Daniel Claus. The original is in the Draper 
collection of Brant Manuscripts. 

279 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


that his undisciplined warriors stood their ground like vet¬ 
erans for more than half an hour as the shot went crashing 
through the tree tops or ploughing up the earth under their 
feet and shells went screeching over their heads or bursting 
in their ranks, while high above the roar of the artillery and 
the rattle of small arms could be heard the voice of Brant, 
encouraging his men for the conflict, and over the heads of 
all his crested plume could be seen waving where the con¬ 
test was likely to be most sharp. 

For several hours this battle in the primeval for¬ 
est lasted, the Indians fighting from behind rocks, 
bushes, and trees, their yells and warwhoops drowned 
by the noise of cannon. At last they were forced 
from behind their fortifications, but, under Brant’s 
skilful leadership, they made a hasty retreat, and 
were saved from destruction. His men “ darted 
from tree to tree, with the agility of panthers,” and 
at a fording-place up the river, crossed to the other 
side with such haste that they left behind their 
packs, tomahawks, and scalping-knives. Pursued 
for two miles, they lost eight men, killed. The 
bodies of fourteen others were afterward found 
partly buried. Their total loss included eleven 
more. The Americans lost five or six men, and had 
forty or fifty wounded. 

Among the Indian towns which the expedition 
now entered and laid in ruins, were these : Two 
miles above Newtown, one with eight houses; far¬ 
ther on, Kanawaholla * with twenty ; Catharinetown 
with thirty or forty good houses, fine cornfields, 
horses, cows, hogs, etc.; Kendaia with twenty houses 
of hewn logs, some of them painted, peach-trees and 
an apple orchard of sixty trees ; Kanadesaga *j* with 

* Head on a Pole, is the meaning Dr. Beauchamp gives. 

f New Settlement is the accepted meaning. 

280 



INDIAN HOMES LAID WASTE 


fifty houses, and thirty others near it, orchards and 
cornfields, the village being built around a square in 
which trees were growing ; Skoiyase * with eighteen 
houses, fields of corn and trees well laden with apples, 
this town being destroyed by detachments under 
Colonel John Harper; Shenanwaga with twenty 
houses, orchards, cornfields fenced in, stacks of hay, 
hogs, and fowls ; Kanandaigua j* with twenty-three 
“ elegant houses, some framed, others log, but large 
and new ” ; Honeoye with twenty houses ; Kanagh- 
saws with eighteen houses ; Gathtsewarohare with 
twenty-five houses, mostly new, and cornfield which 
it took 2,000 men six hours to destroy; Little 
Beard’s Town, the great Seneca Castle, having 128 
houses, mostly “ large and elegant, surrounded by 
about 200 acres of growing corn as well as by gar¬ 
dens in which all kinds of vegetables were growing, 
from 15,000 to 20,000 bushels of corn being burned 
with the buildings,” and finally six or seven villages 
along the shores of Cayuga Lake, destroyed by a 
detachment under Colonel William Butler. 

One of these Cayuga towns was Chonobote where 
were found peach-trees numbering 1,500, all of which 
were cut down. At Kanadesaga, besides apple and 
peach trees, there were mulberry-trees, and the grow¬ 
ing vegetables were onions, peas, beans, squashes, 
potatoes, turnips, cabbages, cucumbers, watermelons, 
carrots, and parsnips. General Clinton describes 
the corn as “ the finest I have ever seen.” One of 
the officers saw ears twenty inches long. Under the 
white man, fifteen years later, this Genesee country 
was to acquire new and lasting fame for extraordi¬ 
nary fertility. 

* The word means Long Falls or Rapids in the River- 

t Means Place Chosen for a Settlement. 

28l 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Thus was all that garden land laid waste. “ Corn, 
gathered and ungathered, to the amount of 160,000 
bushels,” says Stone, “ shared the same fate; their 
fruit-trees were cut down, and the Indians were hunt¬ 
ed like wild beasts, till neither house nor fruit-trees, 
nor field of corn, nor inhabitant, remained in the 
whole country.” He adds, that in this expedition 
more towns were laid in ashes and a broader extent 
of country ruined than had ever before been the 
case on this continent. 

Sullivan’s rigorous measures have been severely 
criticised, but he had instructions from Congress to 
be severe. Washington’s letter declared that “ the 
immediate objects are the total destruction and de¬ 
vastation of their settlements.” The country was 
not to be “merely overrun, but destroyed.” In a 
letter to Laurens in September of this year, Wash¬ 
ington said : “ The Indians, men, women and children, 
are flying before him [Sullivan] to Niagara, distant 
more than one hundred miles, in the utmost con¬ 
sternation, distress, and confusion, with the Butlers, 
Brant, and the others at their head.” 

After Newtown, Brant and Butler proceeded 
westward and northward, where reinforcements'were 
secured, and another attempt to check the progress 
of Sullivan was determined upon. While the army 
lay near Little Beard’s Town, Lieutenant Thomas 
Boyd with twenty-nine men, was sent out to make 
a reconnoissance. They were surprised by Brant, 
and fifteen of them were slain. One of these was 
Boyd himself, who died after the most frightful tor¬ 
tures had been inflicted. The full details are given 
by Stone, but I must forbear to repeat them. Brant 
was not responsible for this crowning atrocity. He 
was temporarily absent, and it has generally been 

282 




INDIAN HOMES LAID WASTE 


felt that Colonel John Butler is to be blamed for not 
restraining the ferocity of the Indians. Among 
those who escaped were Timothy Murphy, the 
famous scout, and David Elerson. 

When Sullivan finally departed from the country, 
the Indians returned to witness the desolate state of 
their ancestral homes—blackened ruins, with fields of 
corn and gardens overturned. Mary Jemison says 
there was not enough left to keep a child. Home¬ 
less now, in their own land, the Indians marched to 
Niagara, where, around the fort, the English built 
huts for them to pass the winter in. Owing to the 
severe cold, hunting became impossible that season ; 
so that they were forced to live on salted food, which 
produced scurvy, and hundreds of them died. 


283 




J 






PART VII 


Last Years of the War 

1780-1783 

















I 


Schoharie 
and the 

Mohawk Laid Waste 

1780 

I N the work of the Sullivan expedition the grav¬ 
est calamity in their recorded history had over¬ 
whelmed the Iroquois. Of their civilization, 
indeed, little remained save the Iroquois themselves. 
But they were not to submit in despair. In the en¬ 
suing years of the war, they descended again and 
again upon the white man’s frontier, leaving it at 
last quite as desolate as their own land had become. 
In Oriskany had been begun the Border Wars, but 
in Sullivan’s expedition new and deeper bitterness 
was infused into the heart and soul of the Indian. 
Appalling ruin at their hands was now to overwhelm 
the settlements. But the Indians alone were not to 
bring on this desolation. Substantial co-operation 
came from the British. 

Henceforth, indeed, the main war-scenes were to 
be found in the Mohawk and Schoharie Valleys. 
Little remained to be destroyed on the upper Sus¬ 
quehanna. That region had become a land of 
silence and desolation. Its houses were in ruins ; 
its people had fled ; its soil had been given up to 
Nature’s wild growths. Guarded as the Mohawk 
still was at Fort Schuyler, the Susquehanna re¬ 
mained a highway, however, by which the Indians 

287 






THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


and Tories could most safely reach the settlements 
lying north and east. 

Sullivan had scarcely returned to the seaboard 
when complaints were made from the Mohawk Val¬ 
ley of Indians who “ eat our provisions whilst they 
watch to cut our throats.” Several persons had 
been murdered and scalped in October of this same 
year. On October 20th scouts brought word that 
Fort Schuyler was threatened. Sir John Johnson 
was said to be on his way with a thousand Indians, 
besides a large body of regular troops supplied with 
heavy cannon. While the regulars attacked the 
fort, the Indians were to ravage the Mohawk Val¬ 
ley.* Nothing came of this report in 1779, but in 
the following year it was amply confirmed. 

The enemy did not even wait for spring to open 
before beginning the work of retaliation. In the 
month of February, when there was fine snow-shoe 
weather, a small force reached German Flatts, where 
one woman was killed and three were wounded. In 
March a party of thirty, also on snow-shoes, invaded 
a settlement north of Palatine, killed one person, 
made several prisoners, and burned some buildings. 
They were painted after the fashion of Indians, but 
were supposed to be Tories. Early in April, Indians 
were hovering about Fort Schuyler. Scouts were 
sent out to watch them in seven different places. 
Brant, himself, came on from Niagara and during 
the same month, with forty-three Indians and seven 
Tories, reached Harpersfield, where he surprised 
Captain Alexander Harper in a “sugar-bush.” 

Harper was approached as he was bending over 
to adjust his snow-shoes. When holding his toma¬ 
hawk in the air above Harper’s head, Brant discov- 

* Clinton Manuscripts. 

288 


MINISINK REVISITED 


ered for the first time who the man before him was. 
“ Ah, Captain Harper,” said he, “ is it thee ? I am 
sorry to find thee here.” “ Why are you sorry, 
Captain Brant ? ” asked Harper. “ Because I must 
kill thee,” answered Brant. Harper remarked there 
was “ no use in killing those who submitted peace¬ 
ably.” Brant then having had Harper bound as a 
prisoner, attacked the settlement at Harpersfield 
and burned it. Three men were killed and eight 
were made prisoners, the party proceeding across 
the hills to the head of the Delaware. From camp 
Harper wrote to his wife that Brant “ uses me and 
all those taken along with me exceeding well.” Brant 
had assured him that an exchange of prisoners could 
be “ easily obtained,” providing the Americans were 
willing to co-operate in the matter. 

With other prisoners, Harper was taken to Ni¬ 
agara, where he spent many months in captivity. 
Patchin, in his narrative of the journey as given to 
Priest, says that “ from this place [Cookoze] we 
crossed through the wilderness, over hills and moun¬ 
tains the most difficult to be conceived of, till we 
came to a place called Ochquago, on the Susque¬ 
hanna River, which had been an Indian settlement 
before the war. Here they constructed several rafts 
out of old logs, which they fastened together with 
withes and poles passing crosswise, on which, after 
untying us, we were placed, themselves managing to 
steer.” Aboard these rafts the party proceeded to 
Tioga Point and thence by land to Niagara. 

While at Oghwaga Brant invaded the Ulster dis¬ 
trict. Houses were burned, farms plundered, and 
captives taken. Brant also sent out a detachment of 
eleven warriors to seize prisoners in Minisink. Five 
men were taken. At night, when the Indians were 

289 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


asleep, one of the men freed his hands and feet of 
the cords that bound them and released his four 
companions. Seizing each a tomahawk they killed 
nine of the eleven Indians and wounded one, the 
survivor making good his escape. The Minisink 
men then returned to their homes. When the sur¬ 
viving Indian had joined the party of Brant and nar¬ 
rated this tale, Brant’s men became mad with desire 
for revenge. Their knives and hatchets had been 
made ready for the slaughter of Harper and his com¬ 
panions when the surviving Indian, who was a chief, 
rushed upon the scene and stayed their hands. He 
declared that these white men had not killed the 
Indians and to murder innocent men would offend 
the Great Spirit. Stone lauds this conduct as “ a 
noble action, wc r thy of the proudest era of chivalry,” 
and regrets that “ the name of this high-souled war¬ 
rior is lost.” That sentiments of this kind had been 
fostered by Brant there is no doubt. He wrote from 
the Delaware, on April ioth of this year, addressing 
his enemies : 

That your Bostonians (alias Americans) may be certified 
of my conduct towards all those whom I have captured in 
these parts, know that I have taken off with me but a small 
number. Many have I released. Neither were the weak 
and helpless subjected to death, for it is a shame to destroy 
those who are defenceless. This has been uniformly my 
conduct during the war. These being my sentiments you 
have exceedingly angered me by threatening or distressing 
those who may be considered as prisoners. Ye are (or once 
were) brave men. I shall certainly destroy without dis¬ 
tinction, does the like conduct take place in future.* 

A month later alarming intelligence came once 
more into the Mohawk valley. A messenger brought 

* Brant MSS. in the Draper collection. 

29O 


THE MOHAWK LAID WASTE 


word that a vessel had sailed from Niagara with ioo 
men under Butler and a small number of regular 
troops. Brant had also sailed with 300 of his war¬ 
riors. Both forces had landed at Oswego, where they 
were joined by 150 other men. It was said that Sir 
John Johnson was to attack his old home at Johns¬ 
town as well as Stone Arabia, and that Brant was to 
follow with an attack on Canajoharie. Another re¬ 
port was that troops to the amount of 5,000, com¬ 
posed of Indians, regulars, and Tories, would attack 
Fort Schuyler. South, from Canada, by way of 
Lake Champlain, came Sir John in May of this year 
with 500 men, of whom 200 were Indians and To¬ 
ries, the others British troops, and Sir John’s Royal 
Greens. 

Sir John’s destination was the Mohawk region in 
which he had spent his early life, and he was ulti¬ 
mately to visit the home of his father at Johnstown. 
At Tribes Hill houses were plundered and some of 
them burned. The home of Colonel Vissher was 
then attacked, three brothers being scalped and the 
house burned. For twelve or thirteen miles the 
valley was traversed, forty prisoners being taken. 
Stone says, every building not owned by a loyalist 
was burned, sheep and cattle were killed and horses 
taken away for the use of the army. Nine old men, 
four of them being upward of eighty, were slain, 
and in Caughnawaga the only building that escaped 
destruction was the church. 

Sir John, on arriving at his father’s home, made 
the house his head-quarters, the prisoners being 
guarded in an open field. He had not visited this 
home since his abrupt departure in 1776, four years 
before. Stone describes how he caused to be dug 
up the family silver, which had been buried in the 

291 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


cellar. It filled two barrels and was divided among 
forty of his soldiers, who carried it back to Montreal. 
Meanwhile, militiamen led by Colonel Harper, who 
from Fort Hunter had witnessed the burning of 
Caughnawaga, and by Colonel Volkert Veeder ar¬ 
rived, but as Tories had joined Sir John until his 
forces numbered 700 or 1,000 men, or twice their 
own, they were unable to engage him. Governor 
Clinton, hearing of the invasion, sent a force to in¬ 
tercept Sir John on his return by way of Lake Cham¬ 
plain, but Sir John eluded his pursuers and made 
his way safely back to Canada. 

The arrival of Butler and Brant on the south side 
of the river was not long delayed. By the middle 
of May they had appeared on the upper Mohawk. 
On June 10th a party of twenty Indians burned 
houses and took prisoners at German Flatts. An¬ 
other party invaded Schoharie and conveyed several 
prisoners down to Unadilla. By July 1st reports 
came from many settlements that Indians were hov¬ 
ering about them. Fort Schuyler was in distress for 
want of provisions. At the Schoharie forts, outside 
the local militia there were only eighty men to de¬ 
fend them.* Block-houses, meanwhile, had been 
erected for the protection of women and children. 
Farmers ploughed their fields and gathered their 
crops assembled in companies. They kept their rifles 
near at hand and sent out scouts to watch for the ap¬ 
proach of the enemy. 

Late in July 600 Indians and 200 white men, led 
by Brant and a British officer, appeared at Fort 
Schuyler and killed several horses. They cut off 
communication between the fort and German Flatts, 
and captured fifty-three prisoners. This movement 

* Clinton MSS. 

292 




THE MOHAWK LAID WASTE 


is understood to have been a feint. After Sir John’s 
departure. Governor Clinton had sent General Gan- 
sevoort with a mass of stores to Fort Schuyler, and 
Brant caused it to be made known that he intended 
to take the Fort. This induced the sending forward 
of men for its defence from the lower valley, leaving 
that region unprotected. Brant meanwhile quietly 
slipped down the Unadilla River, and thus his ap¬ 
proach to Canajoharie by the Susquehanna route 
was in danger of no opposition. 

Early in the year Brant had contemplated this 
invasion of his early home, he and Sir John being 
thus actuated by similar enterprises, but for some 
cause he had deferred it until midsummer. The 
attack on Canajoharie was finally made on August 
ad. There were 450 Indians with him. He killed 
fourteen persons, burned nearly all the houses, capt¬ 
ured fifty or sixty prisoners, took three hundred 
head of cattle, horses and pigs, and burned more 
than one hundred houses and barns, one church, 
one mill, two forts, and a quantity of farm tools. 
Colonel Clyde reported that all this happened “ at a 
very unfortunate hour, when all the militia of the 
country was called up to Fort Schuyler to guard 
nine battoes about half loaded.” 

This destruction, combined with other work done 
by Brant during the expedition, resulted in the kill¬ 
ing of twenty-four persons and the capture of sev¬ 
enty-three prisoners. The destruction of Canajoharie 
was over before militia arrived from Schenectady and 
Albany. Indians alone were in the expedition. 
Brant’s route led him now to the head of the Dela¬ 
ware, where he wrote to one of the Schoharie officers: 

I understand that my friend Hendrick Nuff and Cook 
is taken prisoners near at Esopus. I would be glad if you 

293 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


would be so kind as to let those people know that took 
them not to use my friends too hard, for if they will use 
hard and hurt them, I will certainly pay for it, for we have 
several rebels in our hands makes me mention this, for it 
would be disagreeable to me to hurt my prisoners. There¬ 
fore I hope they will not force me.* 

Adam Crysler, went to Vroomansland in Au¬ 
gust, under orders, he said, from Sir John Johnson 
“ to proceed with a party of Oughquagos, etc., to 
Schoharie where I had a skirmish with the Rebels; 
took five scalps, two prisoners, and burned some 
houses and barns.” After these disasters General 
TenBroeck wrote to Governor Clinton that “the 
most opulent parts of Tryon County, Stone Arabia 
excepted, had fallen beneath the invader.” 

* Clinton MSS 


294 




II 


Sir John and 
Brant Return 

A UGUST had not passed before word arrived 
of a new invasion. It was said that Sir John 
intended to strike Stone Arabia, and that 
2,000 men were coming with him. Early in Sep¬ 
tember sixty-five of the enemy attacked Fort Day- 
ton, and small parties were hovering about elsewhere. 
Sir John’s new enterprise was destined to become 
memorable. Primarily it was an expedition of Brit¬ 
ish origin and has been thought to have been con¬ 
nected with Arnold’s treason, that last attempt to 
secure control of the Hudson valley. Sir John, it 
has been understood, had knowledge of Arnold’s 
purposes, Arnold having been in treasonable cor¬ 
respondence with the British for probably a year 
before his designs were discovered. By this in¬ 
vasion, at any rate, it was hoped that Sir John 
would attract a force away from West Point, making 
it more easy for the British to gain possession of the 
Hudson. He was already far advanced on his way 
when the treason of Arnold was laid bare in the capt¬ 
ure of Andre at Tarry town. 

Another motive for the expedition was the demor¬ 
alizing effects produced by the Sullivan expedition 
among British sympathizers in Tryon County. Seri¬ 
ous doubts now began to possess them as to Eng¬ 
land’s success. They were showing a disposition to 
unite with the patriot party. Some of them had 

295 






THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


gone so far as to swear allegiance to Congress, fear¬ 
ing extermination if they did not do so. It was Sir 
John’s hope that he might restore this lost confi¬ 
dence. 

At Painted Post, or Tioga Point, were probably 
collected the Indian forces, now much enlarged in 
their numbers, and with the famous Seneca warrior 
called the Corn-Planter * co-operating with Brant. 
They marched thence to Unadilla and here, prob¬ 
ably, were joined by the forces which Sir John had 
gathered and brought on by way of Buck Island, 
and thence by Oswego, Oneida Lake, and the Una¬ 
dilla River. Hough remarks, that many of the men 
“ were intimately acquainted with the topography of 
the country through which they were to pass, having 
formerly resided in the valley.” 

One estimate places the total number after the 
junction was made at 1,500, while another says it 
was 2,000. Governor Clinton reported to Wash¬ 
ington that Sir John had 750 picked British troops, 
besides Brant’s corps of Indians and Tories. Hear¬ 
ing of the approach of the expedition, the Tryon 
County committee reported that “ it would be in the 
power of the enemy to destroy almost all the grain 
collected, besides the rest of the settlements yet 
standing.” Colonel Harper was sent out to watch 
Sir John’s approach, and Timothy Murphy pro¬ 
ceeded as far as Unadilla with a scouting party 
under Sergeant Lloyd, among whom were B. C. 
Vrooman, William Leek, and Robert Hull. 

From Unadilla the expedition proceeded into 
Schoharie by the well-worn route to the mouth of 

* The Corn-Planter was a half-breed noted for his eloquence. At one 
time he was a rival of Red Jacket, the Seneca chief, whose gifts in pub¬ 
lic speaking won for him the name of Keeper-Awake. 

296 


SIR JOHN AND BRANT RETURN 

the Charlotte and thence followed that stream to 
Summit Lake making camp on the south side.* 
Crossing the dividing line beyond the lake the ex¬ 
pedition passed on to what is now Middleburgh, 
where were fifty local militiamen, and a garrison of 
150 other state troops, possessed, however, of only 
a few rounds of powder for each man. About 500 
men began the siege, which was stoutly resisted.*]* 
Meanwhile, the enemy plundered and burned the 
settlements. 

Failing to subdue the fort the expedition began a 
desolating march down the Schoharie Valley, burn¬ 
ing and otherwise destroying everything it found 
on the way. Horses and cattle were taken and 
nothing escaped the invaders except the homes and 
property of loyalists. Only two men were killed 
and one wounded at the fort, but the number of 
unprotected inhabitants killed is said to have reached 
100. Schoharie had never seen finer fields of grain 
than those which Sir John destroyed. It was one 
of the most prosperous regions on the frontier. Few 
log houses remained there, good frame structures 
having supplanted the ruder dwellings of an earlier 
time. Arrived at Fort Hunter the desolating work 

* The authority for this statement is William E. Roscoe, of Carlisle, 
who learned the facts from a man named Monk, son of a Tory who took 
part in the expedition. 

f Of this Schoharie invasion, Stone relates the following incident: 
“ One of the farmers on that day, while engaged with his boys in un¬ 
loading a wagon of grain at the barn, hearing a shriek, looked about and 
saw a party of Indians and Tories between himself and the house. ‘ The 
enemy, my boys ! ’ said the father, and sprang from the wagon, but in 
attempting to leap the fence, a rifle ball brought him dead upon the spot. 
The shriek had proceeded from his wife, who, in coming from the garden, 
had discovered the savages, and screamed to give the alarm. She was 
struck down by a tomahawk. Her little son, five years old, who had been 
playing about the wagon, run up to his mother in an agony of grief, as she 
lay weltering in blood, and was knocked on the head and left dead by the 
side of his parent. The two other boys were carried away into Canada, 
and did not return until after the war.” 

297 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


was continued. All that Brant had left of Caughna- 
waga was destroyed. The invaders then passed to the 
westward, spreading ruin in their path, until, says 
Stone, “ both shores of the Mohawk were lighted up 
by the conflagration of everything combustible, while 
the panic-stricken inhabitants only escaped slaughter 
or captivity by flight.” 

Back from the river at Palatine stood the ancient 
settlement of Stone Arabia guarded by a small 
stockade. Militia were sent forward to protect it, 
and re-enforcements were to follow. But these did 
not come and the others were overpowered after 
forty or forty-five of them had been slain, including 
Colonel Brown, one of the bravest men on the 
frontier, who in the Burgoyne campaign had dis¬ 
tinguished himself by liberating ioo American 
prisoners and making prisoners of nearly 300 of the 
enemy. The survivors took to flight, whereupon 
everything in that neighborhood fell a victim to the 
destroyer. Laden with plunder Sir John pushed 
on to Klock’s Field, three miles to the west. Here 
ensued a battle, General Robert Van Rensselaer hav¬ 
ing come up the river with 1,500 men, a force su¬ 
perior to Sir John’s. After a brief battle, the enemy 
closely pressed took to flight. Colonel Dubois wished 
to pursue them, but General Van Rensselaer ordered 
his forces to retire in order to find a better place for 
a bivouac, night being at hand. 

This action on the general’s part has been much 
condemned, as it was condemned at the time by his 
subordinates. Stone says it was learned from one 
of the prisoners that at the time the retreat was 
ordered Sir John was ready to capitulate. When 
morning dawned the enemy were nowhere in sight. 
General Van Rensselaer set out in pursuit. He 

298 


KLOCK’S FIELD 


sent forward from Fort Herkimer a force to over¬ 
take Sir John and promised to follow himself, but 
this he failed to do. Meanwhile, another force, 
which he had ordered out from Fort Schuyler to 
oppose Sir John made an advance, but while en¬ 
gaged at dinner, was surprised by Brant and every 
man was captured—two captains, one lieutenant, 
eight non-commissioned officers, and forty-five pri¬ 
vates. No obstacle impeding his flight, Sir John 
pushed on to the westward.* 

On leaving the Mohawk Valley Sir John had 
crossed the head waters of the Unadilla River ac¬ 
companied by Brant, who was suffering from a pain¬ 
ful wound in the heel. Seeing an American officer 
among the prisoners, Brant, from sudden impulse, is 
said to have tomahawked him. On being remon¬ 
strated with he said he was sorry he had not con¬ 
trolled himself while in pain, but the heel felt better 
since he had done this deed.f 

At Fort Plain one of Sir John’s prisoners was 
John O’Bail (written also O’Beal, O’Ball, and Abeel), 
an old man, who in his youth had frequently lived 
among the Indians, and, by an Indian woman, had 
had a son who was the Corn-Planter. Just beyond 
Fort Plain, the Corn-Planter said to him : “If you 

* It should be stated here that a Court of Inquiry into the conduct of 
General Van Rensselaer convened in March of the following year and ex¬ 
onerated the General. Among the Clinton MSS. are its findings, filling 
forty-eight folio pages. It unanimously gave the opinion that “the whole 
of Gen. Van Rensselaer’s conduct both before and after, as well as in, 
the action of October 19th, was not only unexceptionable, but such as 
became a good, active, faithful, prudent, and spirited officer,—and that the 
public clamours to his prejudice on that account are without the least 
foundation.” 

f Weld’s Travels in America. The reader will note that this incident 
is inconsistent with Brant’s assertion that he had never killed more than 
one man in cold blood—the man whom he killed when he supposed the 
man had lied to him. The author has found no confirmation of Weld’s 
story in other writings. 


299 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


now choose to follow the fortunes of your yellow son, 
and to live with us people, I will cherish your old 
age with plenty of venison and you shall live easy ; 
but if it is your choice to return to your friends and 
live with your white children, I will send a party of 
my trusty young men to conduct you back in safety ; 
I respect you, my father.” O’Bail decided to re¬ 
turn to his white children. 

Elsewhere on the frontier considerable alarm ex¬ 
isted through the autumn of this year. An expedi¬ 
tion had, indeed, come down from the north under 
Colonel Carleton and had burned Ballston. Sara¬ 
toga and Stillwater expected to be attacked. St. 
Leger was known to be on Lake Champlain with 
a large force. An Oneida Indian, in December, 
brought word to the Mohawk Valley that, in the 
following year, Schenectady would be destroyed. 
There was much suffering that winter at Fort 
Schuyler. Food was scarce, and many of the garri¬ 
son were so badly clothed that not more than twenty 
were fit to be sent out on foraging expeditions. 


3 00 


Ill 


Colonel Willett 


Expels the Invaders 


1781 


HE year in which Cornwallis surrendered 



brought to the frontier drastic and successful 


measures for its defense. Colonel William 


Butler had, it is true, destroyed the two Indian 
head-quarters at Unadilla and Oghwaga, but he re¬ 
turned from the Susquehanna Valley as soon as that 
work was done, and six weeks later the savages and 
Tories poured into Cherry Valley, burned its houses 
and massacred its people. And so with General 
Sullivan. He overturned every sign of Indian civ¬ 
ilization that he found in western New York, only 
to return whence he had come and to be followed 
by the two expeditions of 1780 that spread desola¬ 
tion throughout the Mohawk and Schoharie valleys. 

In the early summer of 1781 there arrived in the 
Mohawk Valley a man whose presence meant stern 
and effective action. This was Colonel Marinus 
Willett, the only man in permanent command on 
the frontier during these Border Wars who could 
be said at any time to have become master of the 
territory committed to his charge. Under him were 
consolidated five New York regiments. After much 
urging he had been induced to leave the main army 
and take this command. 

Colonel Willett, afterward a brigadier, was one of 
the bravest and most efficient officers of minor rank 


3° l 






THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


who served in the Revolution. He was already a 
veteran of the French war, having won distinction 
in Abercrombie’s expedition of 1758 against Fort 
Ticonderoga, and having been present at the capture 
of Fort Frontenac. He had been one of the lead¬ 
ers of the Sons of Liberty in New York City, and 
in June, 1775, had prevented the dispatch of arms 
from the New York arsenal to the British troops in 
Boston. Under Montgomery he went to Canada 
in 1775. At Fort Schuyler in 1777 he was second 
in command, and led the sally from the fort against 
St. Leger, that secured to the militia the final 
victory at Oriskany. He afterward served under 
Washington in New Jersey, and in 1779 was with 
Sullivan in western New York. 

Before Colonel Willett arrived, there had been 
constant irruptions all through the spring and sum¬ 
mer of 1781. In January scouts of Brant were at 
German Flatts, and in February and March at other 
places along the valley. Late in April the enemy 
was seen near Minisink. Finally, on April 26th, 
another descent by eighty men was made upon 
Cherry Valley, and in its way this, too, was a mas¬ 
sacre. All the people of the place, except one man 
and four boys, were either murdered or captured. 
Fifteen of the Indians then descended upon Cana- 
joharie, killed four persons and several children and 
burned houses, mills, and barns. The number killed 
at Cherry Valley was eight, and the prisoners taken 
away were fourteen.* 

Meanwhile Schenectady was reported to be in 
danger. People in Albany were packing up their 
household goods preparing to depart, and the bar¬ 
racks at Fort Schuyler were burned. Fort Schuyler 

* Statement of Andrew McFarlan in the Clinton MSS. 

3°2 



COLONEL MARINUS WILLETT 

(From the frontispiece to “A Narrative of the Military Actions of 
Colonel Marinus Willett .") 
















WILLETT IN COMMAND 


had suffered severely that year from a flood. It was 
estimated that more than two-thirds of the works 
had been ruined, and that 500 or 600 men would be 
necessary to repair them. Fire now destroyed what 
remained. After the war, the fortress was rebuilt 
and the former name, Fort Stanwix, as already stated, 
was given to it again. 

Tories were everywhere now increasing in num¬ 
bers, and many inhabitants with Tory sympathies 
were giving food and shelter to the invaders. Sug¬ 
gestions came from the main army that the forces 
on the frontier should be removed, but these were 
firmly resisted. It was insisted instead that an ex¬ 
pedition ought to go out to Buck Island. Wash¬ 
ington was then maturing his plans with Rocham- 
beau at Dobbs Ferry, intending to make his famous 
descent upon Cornwallis in the South and troops 
were wanted for that campaign. 

So far from being able to take care of itself, the 
frontier was more defenceless than ever. When 
the war began, the enrolled militiamen in Tryon 
County numbered quite 2,500 men, but in the 
summer of 1781 the number liable to bear arms, 
according to Stone, did not exceed 800. This 
astonishing change was due in about equal propor¬ 
tions to three causes—men who had been killed, 
those who had fled, and those who had gone over to 
the enemy. In these circumstances blockhouses 
had been erected for the defense of women and chil¬ 
dren, each house holding from ten to fifty families. 
In 1781 there were twenty-four such structures be¬ 
tween Schenectady and Fort Schuyler. 

With the arrival at Canajoharie of Colonel Wil¬ 
lett everyone in the Mohawk Valley took heart 
afresh. He soon ascertained that the settlement of 

303 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Torlock, lying northeast of Cherry Valley, was a 
conspicuous haunt of Tories, and proposed to eradi¬ 
cate them. He wrote to Governor Clinton asking 
if there would be any difficulty in securing their 
punishment; otherwise he was willing to assume 
“ all the responsibility of having them hanged him¬ 
self.” Some of these Tories had promised $10 for 
every scalp taken, and fifty acres of land to all per¬ 
sons who joined them. 

The settlement of Currietown having been put 
under the torch, Willett sent a force to its defence. 
He then went in pursuit of the enemy and a battle 
occurred at what is known as Sharon Centre, where 
in a cedar swamp still to be seen, 200 or 300 Ind¬ 
ians and Tories were dispersed. About forty Ind¬ 
ians were killed, and five Americans. The Indians 
were commanded by a chief named Quackyack and 
the Tories by John Doxstader, who had come from 
Johnstown and is believed to have retreated to Ogh- 
waga when pursued. Willett had with him only 
150 men, including some militiamen. He led the 
attack in person, waving his hat and saying he could 
catch in the hat all the balls the enemy might send. 

In this fight Captain Robert McKean, the brave 
scout, was wounded, and from the effects of the shot 
afterward died. Before the battle the Indians had 
bound to trees nine prisoners whom they had taken 
at Currietown. These men were tomahawked and 
scalped when the action began. Willett’s soldiers 
afterward buried them, but one of the nine, Jacob 
Diefendorf, was not actually dead and his grave 
being only slightly covered he was able to extricate 
himself when consciousness returned. Some of 
Willett’s soldiers afterward found Diefendorf lying 
outside his own grave. Stone received this story 

3 ° 4 


WILLETT IN COMMAND 


from Diefendorf himself. On July 15th, Willett’s 
men captured ninety head of cattle at Torlock, these 
cattle being sent to Fort Herkimer, where now were 
quartered the troops who had been forced to aban¬ 
don Fort Schuyler in consequence of the destruction 
of the barracks.* 

The next news from the enemy was that they had 
burned Wawarsing in Ulster County and had re¬ 
turned by way of Lackawaxen to Oghwaga. There 
were 300 Indians and ninety Tories in the party. 
In September an attack was made on a settlement 
occupying part of the site of the present village of 
Cobleskill, where between twenty and thirty Indians 
killed one man and took seven prisoners. Later in 
the season George Warner of Cobleskill was made 
a prisoner and, along with others, conveyed to Ni¬ 
agara, where were now confined about 200 Ameri¬ 
cans. Another incident in this neighborhood was the 
murder of Captain Dietz’s family, his father, mother, 
wife, and four children, with a Scotch servant girl, 
by fifteen Tories and Indians. Near Little Falls, 
in an ambuscade, eleven men had been killed. 

Near the end of October Colonel Willett was able 
to drive the invaders out of the valley and in cir¬ 
cumstances which make one of the most gratifying 
incidents in all this story of the Border Wars. Ma¬ 
jor Ross had sailed from Buck Island with 450 men. 
Leaving his boats in Oneida Lake in charge of 
twenty invalid men, he proceeded by the Unadilla 
River and Cherry Valley to Warren’s Bush on the 
Mohawk,j* where he killed two men and burned 
twenty houses and large stores of grain. Brant and 
Crysler, meanwhile, with sixty or seventy Indians 
and Tories, fought an engagement on Summit, or 

* Clinton MSS. t Ibid. 


3 05 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Utsyantha Lake. Joachim van Valkenburg in that 
fight lost his life. He had been known in Schoharie 
as one of the bravest of scouts. Crysler says he had 
twenty-eight men at Summit Lake,* that he took 
off fifty cattle and some horses, but on being pur¬ 
sued twenty-five miles down the Charlotte lost the 
cattle and made no attempt to recover them. 

Major Ross went on to Johnstown, pursued by 
Colonel Willett, and was forced to retreat, losing 
seven men killed, thirty or forty wounded, and twen¬ 
ty-two who were taken prisoners. His little army 
had swollen to about 600 men, of whom 155 were 
regulars, 120 Sir John’s Royal Greens, 150 Butler’s 
Rangers, and 130 Indians.^ Willett closely fol¬ 
lowed him to Fort Herkimer and when the motley 
forces turned to ascend the West Canada Creek, 
pursued them in a snowstorm. Twelve miles up 
the stream, at a difficult fording-place, where some 
of the enemy turned, Willett attacked them vigor¬ 
ously, killing several, among whom was the notori¬ 
ous Captain Walter Butler.J With the hand of an 
artist Willett has described this retreat: 

Their flight was performed in an Indian file upon a con¬ 
stant trot, and one man being knocked in the head or falling 
off into the woods, never stopped the progress of his neigh¬ 
bors. Not even the fall of their favorite Butler could attract 
their attention so much as to induce them to take even the 
money or anything else out of his pocket, although he was 
not dead when found by one of our Indians who finished his 
business for him, and got a considerable booty. Strange as 
it may appear, yet notwithstanding the enemy had been four 

* The Indian name of this lake, Utsyantha, means beautiful spring, 
cold and pure. The spring at the head of the Delaware was then called 
Oteseondeo. Dr. Beauchamp thinks it may be the same word. 

f Clinton MSS. 

t Butler has sometimes been called Major, but the commission found 
in one of his pockets showed that he had only a captain’s rank. 

3°6 


WALTER BUTLER’S DEATH 


days with only half a pound of horse flesh for each man per 
day, yet they did not halt from the time we began to pursue 
them until they had proceeded more than thirty miles (and 
they continued their route a considerable part of the night). 
In this situation, to the compassion of a starving wilderness, 
we left them, in a fair way of receiving a punishment better 
suited to their merits than a musket ball, a tomahawk, or 
captivity.* 

The circumstances in which Butler died have been 
narrated in more detail by Campbell: 

When he arrived at West Canada Creek he swam his 
horse across the stream and then, turning around, defied his 
pursuers, who were on the opposite side. An Oneida im¬ 
mediately discharged his rifle and wounded him and he fell. 
Throwing down his rifle and his blanket, the Indian plunged 
into the creek and swam across; as soon as he had gained 
the opposite bank, he raised his tomahawk and with a yell, 
sprang, like a tiger, upon his fallen foe. Butler supplicated, 
though in vain, for mercy ; the Oneida, with his uplifted 
axe, shouted in his broken English, “ Sherry Valley ! re¬ 
member Sherry Valley!” and then buried it in his brain; 
he tore the scalp from the head of his victim, still quivering 
in the agonies of death, and ere the remainder of the Onei- 
das had joined him, the spirit of Walter Butler had gone to 
give up its account. The place where he crossed is called 
Butler’s Ford to this day. 

Still another account says Butler was “ shot dead 
at once, having no time to implore for mercy.” But 
Seeber Granger, who afterward lived in Cherry Val¬ 
ley and had been present at Butler’s death, told Levi 
Beardsley that Butler was first shot in the back by an 
Oneida Indian from across the creek and tomahawked 
afterward. Whatever the details, it was meet that 
Butler should perish by the sword. 

* Clinton MSS. 

307 


IV 


Final War Scenes 

1782-1783 

fTT^EN days before Walter Butler, abandoned 
by his companions in retreat, died in that 
JA. northern forest, Cornwallis surrendered. 
Pursued by Greene and La Fayette, his armies over¬ 
come again and again, he had retired to Yorktown. 
South from the Highlands with Rochambeau had 
come Washington, and there at Yorktown it was 
now the Englishman, instead of the American, who 
became the fox that was bagged. With 37 war¬ 
ships and 7,000 men, General Sir Henry Clinton, 
ten days later, reached New York. 

For the country at large the war was over, but 
not for the New York frontier. Alarms and active 
invasions were still to occur. Colonel Willett had 
driven the enemy, starving, into the wilderness and 
might have inflicted greater punishment, had not 
General Stark called away two companies of men 
and thus caused what Willett, in his official report, 
called, “an essential injury.” Indeed a state of 
war scarcely ceased to exist on the frontier for a 
year and a half longer. Early in the winter, at a 
meeting of militia generals, it was voted unani¬ 
mously that defences were still necessary, and in 
January there was talk of raising more troops. The 
enemy was lurking on the Ulster borders; Tories 
were giving them assistance ; Schoharie was in a state 
of alarm, and new block-houses were being erected.* 

* Clinton MSS. 

3°8 






FINAL WAR SCENES 


In July a party of Indians set out for the upper 
Susquehanna and Delaware, but were diverted to 
German Flatts, whence they were called to Oswego 
where reinforcements were promised. By the end 
of July it was feared that all remains of settlements 
in the Mohawk Valley would be destroyed. There 
were 560 of the enemy assembled at Oswego, of 
whom 350 were Yagers, but there were no Indians. 
Brant’s followers had already been at Canajoharie 
whence they had proceeded to German Flatts. 
Brant had 500 or 600 men with him and had car¬ 
ried away 125 cattle for the army at Oswego. 
Early in August he started out again, but a scout 
was dispatched to call him back. Major Ross 
remarked that owing to the cessation of hostilities, 
he would rather have given 50 guineas than that 
Brant should have gone out. Brant returned with 
eighteen prisoners and one scalp.* 

As late as October rumors were heard that an 
army was coming down from Canada to desolate 
the Mohawk. The fortifications at Oswego had 
been rebuilt and 400 men were stationed there. 
Here was one of the few strongholds now left in 
British hands. Its occupation had been of signal 
service to them in the years that had passed since 
Oriskany. Owing to delay in hearing that the 
Treaty of Peace had been signed, it was determined 
to make an attempt to capture it. Should another 
campaign be necessary, possession of Oswego by 
the Americans would be of the highest importance. 
Colonel Willett set out in February, 1783, and came 
within a few miles of the fortress, but was then 
forced by the severe weather, the mistake of a guide, 
and other obstacles to turn back his steps. This is 

* Bartholomew Forbes’s statement in the Clinton MSS. 

3°9 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


believed to have been the last offensive operation 
undertaken on the frontier, if not in the war itself. 

British troops and Tories alone now remained at 
Oswego. Late in the previous summer the Indians 
had been sent home. The British had informed 
them that their services were no longer needed, and 
their supplies of provisions were stopped. After 
expressing great displeasure at this treatment, they 
departed with sullen faces into the wilderness.* 

It awakens real sympathy to read that statement. 
Considering how small was the force of Indian war¬ 
riors at any time in Iroquois history, the men led to 
the frontier by Brant must be accepted as large 
Indian armies—as large, perhaps, as were ever put 
into the field. The total of all who served under 
the British has been placed at 1,580, while those 
friendly to the Americans numbered about 230. 
Of the Oneidas only 150 followed the British, while 
of the Mohawks they had in their service 300 and 
of the Senecas, 400. 

It was base ingratitude that the English, in this 
last scene at Oswego, showed toward their faithful 
savage allies. In this war the Indians had had 
nothing to gain and all to lose. When the war 
closed they had, in fact, lost everything in the world 
that was theirs. That conduct at Oswego, more¬ 
over, was an ingratitude which the English Gov¬ 
ernment itself was afterward to exhibit when the 
treaty of peace with the colonies was drawn and 
signed. Strangely contrasted this ingratitude 
stands with that attention and that expenditure so 
freely bestowed on Brant and the other Indians 
during their visit to England in the early years of 
the war. 

* Affidavit of Joseph Clements in the Clinton MSS. 

3 10 


FINAL WAR SCENES 

Desolation now prevailed everywhere on the 
frontier. During journeys westward with prisoners, 
fishing and hunting had long been the only methods 
of securing food in the Susquehanna Valley. The 
sites of former villages, Indian as well as white man 
villages, had become forlorn and blackened scenes. 
Thorns and shrubs had grown up where wheat and 
corn had waved their heads. Weeds and brambles 
flourished where hearthstones once had blazed. 
Captain Dietz, survivor of the family murdered in 
Schoharie, while a prisoner lived on birch bark and 
berries, during the journey down the Susquehanna, 
save that at the mouth of the Unadilla a deer was 
shot and starvation thus averted. Another party 
of prisoners found at Oghwaga a colt lost by Dock- 
stader. They killed it and lived long on its flesh, 
a part being dried and taken on the journey. 
Others are known to have passed four days without 
food. Life in one case was sustained by the flesh of 
a wolf, in another a hen hawk was eaten, in another 
a rattlesnake. Bread and salt there were none. 
Fresh ashes were often used as a substitute for salt. 

Patchin told Priest that beyond Chemung a dead 
horse left by the Sullivan expedition was found in 
the spring of 1780, and enough of the carcass had 
survived the attacks of wolves to furnish food. On 
the Genesee River were met some Indians planting 
corn. The Indians had a horse which Brant 
ordered killed and the meat distributed. Patchin 
declares that Brant insisted that prisoners and Ind¬ 
ians should share alike in food. Brant’s parties had 
often been provided with food at the home of Mary 
Jemison, a regular stopping-place on the route to 
Niagara. “ Many and many a night,” says she, “ I 
have pounded samp for them from sunset to sun- 

3 11 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


rise and furnished them with the necessary provis¬ 
ions and clean clothing for their journey.” 

On arrival in Canada the privations endured by 
the prisoners were often great. Bloodgood mentions 
three men who spent two years working like slaves 
without hats in the cornfield. When they returned 
to Schoharie after the war they presented a very wo- 
ful appearance with their faces burned almost black. 
A touching story is told by Priest of Miss Annie 
McKee. She was made a prisoner at Harpersfield 
and taken to Niagara, where the squaws insisted that 
she should go through the terrible ordeal of running 
the gauntlet: 

It was a grievous sight to see a slender girl, weak from 
hunger and worn down with the horrors and privations of a 
four hundred miles’ journey through the woods by night and 
day, compelled at the end to run this race of shame and suf¬ 
fering. Her head was bare and her hair tangled into mats, 
her feet naked and bleeding from wounds, all her clothes 
torn to rags during her march—one would have thought the 
heart-rending sight would have moved the savages. She 
wept not, for all her tears had been shed. She stared around 
upon the grinning multitude in hopeless amazement and fixed 
despair, while she glanced mournfully at the fort which lay 
at the end of the race. The signal was given, which was a 
yell, when she immediately started off as fast as she could, 
while the squaws laid on their whips with all their might, thus 
venting their malice and hatred upon a white woman. She 
reached the fort in almost a dying condition, being beaten 
and cut in the most dreadful manner, as her person had been 
so much exposed on account of the want of clothing to pro¬ 
tect her. She was at length allowed to go to her friends— 
some Scotch people then living in Canada—and after the 
war she returned to the States. 

In December, 1781, with the record not yet com¬ 
plete, it was estimated that in Tryon County 700 

3 12 


FINAL WAR SCENES 


buildings had been burned, 613 persons had deserted, 
and 3 54 families had abandoned their dwellings. The 
number of farms that lay uncultivated was placed at 
12,000. Governor Clinton estimated that the wheat 
destroyed would amount to 150,000 bushels. Tryon 
County had lost two-thirds of its inhabitants. Of 
those who remained 380 were widows and 2,000 
were fatherless children.* 

* A collection of grim and curious souvenirs of this warfare was long 
supposed to have been captured and taken to Albany early in the spring 
of 1782. Along with a mass of peltry were said to have been found 
eight large packages containing scalps, “ taken in the last three years by 
the Seneca Indians from the inhabitants of the frontiers of New York, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.” The scalps, “cured, dried, 
hooped, and painted with all the Indian triumphal marks,” had been de¬ 
signed for shipment from Tioga Point in January of the same year to Sir 
Frederick Haldimand, Governor of Canada, who was asked to transmit 
them “over the water to the Great King, that he may regard them and 
be refreshed, and that he may see our faithfulness in destroying his ene¬ 
mies and be convinced that his presents have not been made to ungrate¬ 
ful people.” 

The letter to Sir Frederick Haldimand added that “the Great King’s 
enemies are many, and they grow fast in number. They were formerly 
like young panthers; they could neither bite nor scratch; we could play 
with them safely ; we feared nothing they could do to us. But now their 
bodies are become big as the elk and strong as the buffalo; they have 
also got great and sharp claws. They have driven us out of our country 
by [our] taking part in your quarrel. We expect the Great King will 
give us another country that our children may live after us and be his 
friends and children as we are. We are poor and you have plenty of 
everything. We know you will send us powder and guns and knives 
and hatchets; but we also want shirts and blankets.” 

An invoice and description of the scalps were given in which appears 
the following : “No. I. Containing 43 scalps of Congress soldiers killed 
in different skirmishes ; these are stretched on black hoops, four inch 
diameter; the inside of the skin painted red with a small black spot to 
note their being killed with bullets. Also sixty-two farmers, killed in 
their houses; the hoops red, the skin painted brown and marked with a 
hoe; a black circle all round to denote their being surprised in the night; 
and a black hatchet in the middle signifying their being killed with that 
weapon. No. 2. Containing 98 of farmers killed in their houses; hoops 
red; figure of a hoe to mark their profession ; great white circle and sun, 
to show they were surprised in the daytime; a little red foot to show they 
stood upon their defence, and died fighting for their lives and families. 
No. 5. Containing 88 scalps of women; hair long, braided in the Indian 
fashion, to show they were mothers; hoops blue ; skin yellow ground, 
with little red tadpoles, to represent, by way of triumph, the tears of 

3*3 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Such was this warfare. The consequences were 
far greater destruction to settlements than the Revo¬ 
lution brought to any other part of the Colonies. 
For the only approach to these losses we must go 
to the distant South, where, in the late years of the 
conflict, ruthless destruction was done. But those 
parts offer a suggestion, not a parallel. 

It is natural to say that this destruction in New 
York should have been averted, and that, with 
proper precautions, it might have been. Nothing 
is clearer than that the authorities were inexcusably 
slow to realize the danger and completely failed to 
guard against it. Aside from the Sullivan expedi¬ 
tion and Colonel Willett’s success of October, 1781, 
no body of men sent to the frontier succeeded in 
one instance in crushing the enemy. It may well 
be questioned if the appalling havoc wrought by 
Colonel William Butler in the Susquehanna Valley 
and by General Sullivan’s army in the Genesee 
country was not the gravest of all errors committed 
during these attempts to provide protection for the 
frontier. 

It was not offensive warfare that the frontier 
needed, but defensive. Oriskany and the two ex¬ 
peditions merely roused the Indians to warfare still 
more savage. Could the men whom General Sulli- 


grief occasioned to their relations ; a black scalping-knife or hatchet at 
the bottom, to mark their being killed with those instruments ; 17 others, 
hair very gray; black hoops, plain brown colour; no mark but the short 
club or cassetete, to show they were knocked down dead, or had their 
brains beat out. No. 7. 211 girls scalped, big and little; small yellow 
hoops; white ground; tears, hatchet, club, scalping-knife, &c. No. 8. 
This package is a mixture of all the varieties above mentioned, to the 
number of 122 ; with a box of birch bark, containing 29 little infants’ 
scalps of various sizes ; small white hoops; white ground.” 

This letter was long supposed to be genuine and has often been printed 
as if it were. Stone, however, discovered that it was written by Franklin 
“ for political purposes.” 

3 1 4 


RESPONSIBILITIES 


van led have been stationed permanently, and as 
early as September, 1777, in forts at Unadilla, 
Schoharie, and Cherry Valley, thus guarding the 
upper Susquehanna, Schoharie, and lower Mohawk 
valleys in the way that Fort Schuyler guarded the 
upper Mohawk, much that was destroyed might 
have been saved.* 

We must hold the English first responsible for 
these frontier wars, in that it was they who coaxed 
the Indians into the fighting at Oriskany, whence 
proceeded the impelling force in the Indian breast 
for the invasions that followed. In Oriskany was 
aroused the strongest passion an Indian can know 
—the desire for revenge. In Butler’s and Sullivan’s 
work that passion was intensified into the bitterest 
hatred possible to that deep and dark aboriginal 
nature. Just as the Susquehanna Valley became 
the victim after Oriskany, so was it the Mohawk, 
Schoharie, and Delaware valleys that paid the pen¬ 
alty after Butler and Sullivan came. 

I am writing here of the Indians. As for the 
Tories, their work was connected in effect, and 
mainly in design, with the struggle for the Hudson 
Valley. That great highway never passed from the 
control of the American armies. Twice it was 
nearly lost — once through British valor, once 
through treason—but lost entirely it never was. 
For the maintenance of possession of it honor 
belongs to many—to Washington above all; to 

* Governor Clinton had suggested to Washington in March, 1779, 
•'the Propriety of erecting one or two small Posts on the nearest navi¬ 
gable Waters of the Susquehanah; they would serve as a security to the 
Settlements, & of Course induce the Militia to engage in the Service 
with greater alacrity. From the general Idea I have of the Country, I 
am led to believe that the Unida [Unadilla] & where the Susque¬ 
hanah empties out of the Lakes, West of Cherry Valley, would be the 
most elligible places.” 

3*5 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Philip Schuyler, to George Clinton, and to Benedict 
Arnold only in lesser degree (traitor though Arnold 
afterward became). But the full measure of obli¬ 
gation remains yet to be bestowed upon men, 
women, and children in the fertile valleys of four 
rivers, where their homes and crops were converted 
into conflagrations, and they themselves, as cattle 
and game might be, were slaughtered. 

This chapter should not close without a repeti¬ 
tion of something already said—that, in so far as 
concerns property, the losses of the frontiersmen 
were more than equalled, if we have regard for pro¬ 
portions, by the appalling destruction done to Iro¬ 
quois villages. Of those losses and of Indian lives 
that were lost, let it always be remembered that no 
historian from the forest has ever chronicled the 
moving story—a story pervaded by the deepest 
pathos that comes into human lives. 


316 


V 


The Iroquois 
After the War 


N OT alone had Iroquois civilization been 
overthrown. A still more pathetic fate 
awaited that proud people. One of the 
most touching results of the war, indeed, was the 
permanent exile that came to many of them—exile 
from streams and forests where for at least three 
hundred years their race had found a home. De¬ 
prived of British support, they saw themselves at 
the mercy of men whom they had fought as rebels, 
but who were now the victorious masters of an 
imperial domain. Nothing for them was exacted 
by the British in the treaty of peace. Not even 
their names were mentioned. They were simply 
abandoned to the mercies of the victors—these mis¬ 
guided children of the forest, who, in Morgan’s 
words, went forth “ not to peril their lives for them¬ 
selves, but to keep the ‘ covenant chain ’ with a 
transatlantic ally.” The misfortunes of the Indians 
have awakened pity from other writers. Campbell, 
in closing his narrative of the darkest deeds in the 
war period, says: 

When I look over this land, the domain of the once 
proud Iroquois, and remember how, in the days of their 
glory, they defended this infant colony from the ravages of 
the French, and contrast their former state—numerous, 
powerful, and respected—with their present condition, I feel 
almost disposed to blot out the record which I have made 
of their subsequent cruelties. 

3 J 7 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


It was not strictly true of all the Iroquois that 
their alliance with the English had been unshaken. 
At various times the French, as we have seen, made 
serious inroads upon the English. When Sir Will¬ 
iam Johnson appeared upon the scene, Joncaire 
had intrigued with the four western nations to very 
real purpose. The Mohawks alone remained al¬ 
ways loyal. Early in the eighteenth century, the 
Jesuit missionaries had ceased to be purely religious 
zealots. They were then as much the agents of the 
King of France as agents of the Church of Rome. 
The Canadian Jesuits having originally been “be¬ 
fore all things, an apostle,” his successor, says 
Parkman, “ was before all things a political agent.” 
At Onondaga, in 1709, sentiment had become much 
divided as between the English and the French. 
Although Abraham Schuyler won back the waver¬ 
ing red men, their sympathies a generation later 
gave signs of flowing back once more to France. 
Had not Johnson appeared at this critical period, 
Parkman thinks the intrigues of the French would 
have succeeded. In that case the after history of 
the Province of New York must have been greatly 
changed. Morgan’s opinion is that France must 
chiefly ascribe to the Iroquois “ The final over¬ 
throw of her magnificent schemes of colonization 
in the northern part of America.” 

From the English the Mohawks, before leaving 
their native valley in 1776, had received a pledge 
that when the war was ended their condition would 
be made as good as it had been before, and this 
pledge had been renewed in 1779. It was only 
through the persistent exertions of Brant that the 
Mohawks at last secured fulfilment of the pledge. 
Brant asked for lands in Canada on the northern 


INDIANS AFTER THE WAR 


shore of Lake Ontario, but was induced to accept 
another tract on Grand River, a Canadian stream 
flowing into Lake Erie near its eastern end. He 
stipulated for “ six miles on each side of the river 
from the mouth to its source,” the length of the 
stream being about ioo miles. It was a fair and 
fertile territory, and here still live many Mohawks, 
possessed of 50,000 acres—all that are left of the 
original 300,000. 

In the legislature of New York, meanwhile, there 
had been some disposition to expel the Iroquois 
from all the territory of the State, where by the laws 
of war their lands had been forfeited. It was largely 
due to Washington that these severe measures were 
not undertaken. He advocated a liberal and hu¬ 
mane policy, and received from the Indians a singu¬ 
lar reward. At his death they mourned him as a 
benefactor, admitting him to a place in their own 
Heaven, an honor conferred on him alone among 
white men, and including a special residence as pre¬ 
pared for him by the Great Spirit. Here Wash¬ 
ington was supposed to dwell in a spacious mansion 
surrounded by attractive gardens and securely forti¬ 
fied. Clad in a military uniform he was believed to 
enjoy perfect felicity. 

In 1785 the Oneidas and Tuscaroras were con¬ 
firmed in possession of certain New York lands in¬ 
cluding those bounded by the Unadilla, Chenango, 
and Susquehanna rivers, but in 1788 the State of 
New York acquired that territory from them by pur¬ 
chase. Descendants of some of the other Iroquois 
still live on reservation in Central and Western New 
York. Besides the Mohawks who settled in the 
Grand River valley some others live in Canada at 
Caughnawaga, near Montreal, the total number of 

3*9 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


the Iroquois living in Canada reaching 30,000;* 
while on land granted in Michigan and the Indian 
Territory others have found homes. 

Brant, in the interest of the Mohawks, made his 
second visit to London at the close of the year 1785, 
and there renewed his acquaintance with many Eng¬ 
lish officers with whom he had been associated in the 
Revolution. He was cordially received. One of 
the officers was General Stewart, son of the Earl of 
Bute, with whom in America Brant had slept under 
the same tent. Another was Lord Percy, afterward 
Duke of Northumberland, with whom he corre¬ 
sponded until his death, and for whom his portrait 
was painted. He dined at famous houses and 
showed himself quite at home in London drawing¬ 
rooms, clad sometimes in the dress of an English 
gentleman, sometimes in a half military and half sav¬ 
age costume. At dinner-tables he sat where were 
assembled Fox, Burke, and Sheridan. From Fox 
he received the gift of a silver snuff-box. Ladies 
remarked upon his mild disposition and the manly 
intelligence of his face. He paid a formal visit to 
George III. and the royal hand, in the usual way, 
was extended for a kiss. Brant declined this oscu- 
latory opportunity, holding that his Indian rank 
technically made him as good a man as the English 
sovereign. Brant had the grace, however, to kiss 
the hand of the English queen. 

During this visit, a grand ball was given in Brant’s 
honor. The foreign ambassadors and many lights 
of the great social world were present, Brant attend¬ 
ing with his war-paint on. Mistaking the painted 
face for a visor, and wishing to examine the visor, 

* So stated in London in 1901 byj. O. Brant-Sero, a descendant of 
Joseph Brant. 


3 20 


BRANT IN LONDON AGAIN 


the Turkish minister ventured to touch Brant’s nose. 
Brant saw his opportunity for sport, and instantly 
sprang away from the Turk. Giving a loud war- 
whoop, he flashed his shining tomahawk in the air, 
to the consternation of everyone who took his con¬ 
duct seriously. Brant was entertained by that dis¬ 
solute Prince of Wales, afterward George IV., whose 
chief ambition was to be known as the first gentle¬ 
man of Europe. *With the prince Brant was taken 
to places which he afterward described as “very 
queer for a Prince to go to.” Stone narrates these 
incidents with obvious pride in his hero. 

During Brant’s stay in London the question arose 
of placing him on half pay, to which he seems to 
have had just claim because he had held a captain’s 
commission. Some difficulty that ensued in regard to 
it led to a letter from Brant to one of the king’s un¬ 
der secretaries that forcibly illustrates the native dig¬ 
nity and independence of this Mohawk leader : 

Sir : 

Since I had the pleasure of seeing you last I have been 
thinking a great deal about the half pay or pension which 
you and I have talked about. 

I am really sorry that I ever mentioned such a thing to 
you. It was really owing to promises made to me by cer¬ 
tain persons several times during the late war that I should 
always be supported by the government at war or peace. 
At that time I never asked anybody to make me such a 
promise. It was of their own free will. 

When I joined the English at the beginning of the war 
it was purely on account of my forefathers’ engagements 
with the King. I always looked upon these engagements 
or covenants between the King and the Indian nations as a 
sacred thing. Therefore I was not to be frightened by the 
threats of the whites at that time. I assure you I had no 

3 21 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


other view in it and this was my real course from the be¬ 
ginning. 

However, after this the English gave me pay and a com¬ 
mission from the Commander-in-Chief, which I gladly re¬ 
ceived as a mark of attention, though I never asked for it, 
and I believe my trouble and risques were of equal value to 
the marks of attention I received; I am sure not too much 
in the eyes of the Indians, or I should not have accepted 
them, as I should be sorry to raise jealousies. My mean¬ 
ing for mentioning those things to you is because I saw 
there was some difficulty on your part how to act on this 
head relative to half pay or pension ; and when it does not 
seem clear I should be sorry to accept it. Therefore I beg 
of you will say no more about it, for was I to get it when 
there were doubts about the propriety of it, I should not be 
happy. For which reason I think it is best to go without it. 

I am now, sir, to beg you will return my best thanks to 
government for what they have done for me and am, sir, 
your most obedient humble servant, Joseph Brant.* 

On his return to Canada Brant established him¬ 
self in a comfortable home near the present town of 
Brantford. Here in 1798 he had between thirty 

* These London visits of Brant and his grandfather have been recently 
recalled in an interesting manner by the presence in London in January, 
1901, of a descendant of theirs whose home is in Ontario, Canada—Mr. 
J. O. Brant-Sero, a man of position, education, and character, who speaks 
our language with the fluency and accent of a cultivated Englishman. 
During the war between Great Britain and the Transvaal Republic, Mr. 
Brant-Sero, true to the loyalty of his race, offered to volunteer in the 
English service, the Six Nations by formal action having expressed their 
willingness to send out 300 warriors. The English declined to accept 
the service on the ground that only men of European descent were per¬ 
mitted to take part in the war. Mr. Brant-Sero then went to South 
Africa, hoping that, through a personal visit, he might get enrolled in 
one of the Colonial regiments. After making several attempts, he suc¬ 
ceeded only in obtaining an appointment on the civilian staff of the re¬ 
mount department. Finding it impossible to get into the fighting ranks, 
he afterward resigned. On returning to London, Mr. Brant-Sero, in 
narrating his South African experiences to a reporter of The Daily News, 
remarked that, although in Canada his people “ live on a footing of per¬ 
fect equality,” in South Africa “ there were men who actually refused to 
shake hands with me because of my Indian blood.” 

3 2 ? 


BRANT’S LIFE IN CANADA 


and forty negroes cultivating his land and looking 
after his horses. He had reduced them to a state 
of complete subjection as slaves. Once more he 
turned his attention to translations from the Bible. 
His version of the Gospel of Mark was the first of 
the gospels ever translated entire into the Mohawk 
tongue. Under his supervision and with the patron¬ 
age of the King of England, it was published with 
the prayer-book and psalms in Mohawk as a hand¬ 
some volume. 

Brant afterward made a journey to Philadelphia 
and had an audience with Washington, who was then 
president. He met many other distinguished per¬ 
sons, among whom were Aaron Burr, Volney, and 
Talleyrand. From Burr he received a letter of in¬ 
troduction to Burr’s daughter, Theodosia, who, at 
her home in New York, gave a dinner in Brant’s 
honor, at which were present Bishop Moore and 
other eminent men of the city. 

In Albany Brant met officers against whom he had 
fought in Tryon County, and talked with them of old 
and stormy times. During this visit he was informed 
that John Wells, son of the late Captain Wells, of 
Cherry Valley, had called to see him, determined to 
take his life. Brant calmly remarked, “ Let him 
come in ” ; but the young man in the meantime had 
been induced to forego his purpose.* 

Brant spent the remainder of his days at his home 
in Canada. When his sons had grown up they were 
sent to Dartmouth College. In a letter to James 
Wheelock he expressed a wish that they should be 

* John Wells subsequently became an eminent lawyer in New York. 
He was associated with Hamilton in the publication of “The Federal¬ 
ist.” On his death a beautiful memorial of him in marble, surmounted 
by a bust, was erected, and may still be seen inside of St. Paul’s Church, 
in Broadway. 


3 2 3 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


“ studiously attended to, not only as to their educa¬ 
tion, but likewise as to their morals in particular.” 
Again he made reference to his own experience 
many years before at Dr. Wheelock’s school in 
Lebanon, of which Dartmouth was now the large 
successor. “ For my part,” said he, “ nothing can 
ever efface from my memory the persevering atten¬ 
tion your revered father paid to my education when 
I was in the place my sons now are. Though I was 
an unprofitable pupil in some respects, yet my worldly 
affairs have been much benefited by the instruction I 
there received.” Brant was liberal with those sons of 
his, as is shown in a letter sending ^ioo for them as 
“ pocket money.” 

Brant’s acquaintance with John Harper continued 
long after the war. “ You may depend on my in¬ 
fluence,” he wrote him in 1804, “with the Ogh- 
wagas to do you justice, which I believe is their full 
determination whenever it is in their power.” Col¬ 
onel Harper was still accustomed to do friendly acts 
for the Indians. Thus for thirty years were con¬ 
tinued those relations, begun at Oghwaga in x 777 > 
when the Indians placed upon Harper’s head that 
crown of leather wrought with beads. 

Brant died in 1807, and lies buried in the Mo¬ 
hawk churchyard near Brantford. During his last 
illness he addressed to his adopted nephew these 
words: “Have pity on the poor Indians. If you 
can get any influence with the great, endeavor to 
do them all the good you can.” Stone’s splendid 
eulogy contains the following words : “In letters he 
was in advance of some of the generals against whom 
he fought; and even of still greater military chieftains 
who have flourished before his day and since. True, 
he was ambitious, and so was Caesar. He sought to 

3 2 4 


BRANT’S CHARACTER 


combine many nations under his own dominion, 
and so did Napoleon. He ruled over barbarians, 
and so did Peter the Great.” In the town named 
after him, an imposing monument perpetuates the 
memory of Brant. In that soil, therefore, sleeps in 
his last sleep the most interesting Indian who, in 
that eventful eighteenth century, forever linked his 
name with the history of Central New York. 

Stone is not alone among Brant’s eulogists. Will¬ 
iam C. Bryant, of Buffalo, had remarked that the 
evidence is incontestible that he was “ a great man— 
in many respects the most extraordinary his race has 
produced since the advent of the white man on this 
continent”; and John Fiske, in one of his later 
books, declares that he “ was the most remarkable 
Indian known to history.” Schoolcraft calls him 
“ the Jephtha of his tribe,” and lauds his “ firmness 
and energy of purpose ” as qualities which few among 
the American aborigines have ever equalled. 

But the best evidence of the man’s personal worth 
lies in the high respect and friendship which he in¬ 
spired among educated and titled Englishmen, as 
shown in many ways and notably in his correspond¬ 
ence. Chesterfield remarked that a private letter 
discloses not only the character of the writer, but 
that of the person to whom the letter is addressed. 
Read in the light of this statement, no one can fail 
to see the regard in which Brant was held by the 
Duke of Northumberland, at that time the head of 
the British peerage, who wrote him the following 
letter: 

Northumberland House, 
Sept. 3rd, 1791. 

My dear Joseph : 

Colonel Simcoe, who is going out Governor of Upper 
Canada, is kind enough to promise to deliver this to you, 

3^5 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


with a brace of pistols which I desire you will keep for my 
sake. I must particularly recommend the Colonel to you 
and the nation. He is a most intimate friend of mine, and 
is possessed of every good quality which can recommend 
him to your friendship. He is brave, humane, sensible, and 
honest. You may safely rely upon whatever he says, for 
he will not deceive you. He loves and honors the Indians, 
whose noble sentiments so perfectly correspond with his 
own. He wishes to live upon the best terms with them, 
and as Governor will have it in his power to be of much 
service to them. In short, he is worthy to be a Mohawk. 
Love him at first for my sake, and you will soon come to 
love him for his own. 

I was very glad to hear that you had received the rifle 
safe which I sent you, and hope it has proved useful to 
you. I preserve with great care your picture, which is 
hung up in the Duchess’s own room. 

Continue to me your friendship and esteem, and believe 
me ever to be, with the greatest truth, 

Your affectionate 

Friend and Brother, 
Northumberland.* 

Colonel Daniel Claus wrote to Brant in 1781 from 
Montreal, a letter containing these words: “We 
shall be very happy to see you here. Mrs. Claus 

* Hugh Percy, Duke of Northumberland, had opposed the war, but 
when it actually began he offered his services and was in this country in 
1775 and 1776 with the rank of Brigadier-General. He led the rein¬ 
forcements which General Gage sent to Lexington in April, 1775, but was 
prevented by illness from commanding his regiment at Bunker Hill. He 
came to New York with the English army in 1776 and at the action 
which reduced Fort Washington, led the column making the first en¬ 
trance into the American lines. Fort George, in that neighborhood, was 
named by him. In the same year he succeeded to the barony of Percy 
and returned to England. It will be remembered that Brant, on coming 
home from England early in 1776, joined the English army on Long Isl¬ 
and, and afterward made his way across the country to the Indians 
already assembled at Oghwaga. It was in this period that he seems to 
have made the acquaintance of the Duke, who was then known as Lord 
Percy. 

326 


BRANT’S CHARACTER 


and all friends are well here and salute you heartily; 
also your sisters and daughters; the others here are 
well, and desire their love and duty. God bless and 
prosper you.” 

Brant has deserved no large part of that load of 
obloquy which on this frontier for many years rested 
upon his name. He was better than the Tories 
under whose guidance he served, and far better than 
most Indian chiefs of his time. There was much in 
the man that was kindly and humane. If he loved 
war, this was because he loved his friends and his 
home still more. He fought in battle with the vigor 
and skill of a savage, but we are to remember that 
he fought where honor called him. To the story of 
his life peculiar fascination must long be attached, a 
large part of which springs from the potent charm 
of an open personality. In Brant’s character were 
joined strength and humanity, genius for war and 
that unfamiliar quality in a Mohawk savage, bon - 
hommie. 


3 2 7 












PART VIII 


The Restoration 
of the 
Frontier 

1782-1800 










I 


Return of the 
Former Settlers 

1782-1788 

W ITH the close of the war, the way lay 
open for repeopling these valleys. On 
the Mohawk and Schoharie, some signs 
of civilization had survived. Those valleys had 
never been entirely depopulated. War had de¬ 
spoiled them much later than the Susquehanna. 
Their crowning misfortunes were among the last 
incidents of the conflict and they had never been 
actually abandoned. The return of peace saw their 
surviving male adults returning to their former 
homes from disbanded regiments, or removing to 
the Susquehanna, and their old men, women, and 
children emerging from block-houses. As Stone 
remarks, those valleys “ soon smiled through their 
tears.” New and substantial courage must have 
come to these people, as, on the one hand, they 
looked into the future, with its splendid promises, 
and, on the other, recalled the past with its 

old, unhappy, far-off things, 

And battles long ago. 

But on the Susquehanna was found a region 
entirely desolate. It virtually contained no inhabi¬ 
tants. Nature once more was in full possession of 
it. Something perhaps of what had been still 
remained, since clearings existed which the forest 

33 1 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


had not entirely reclaimed. Here and there stood 
the remains of log dwellings that might be recon¬ 
structed and made habitable. On the upper waters, 
lay one of the fairest portions of a fair valley, with 
fertile lands bordering the Great Island River. 
Over these lands and along the surface of this river 
it was certain that the warlike Iroquois would roam 
no more. 

The valley had continued to be a resort of Ind¬ 
ians more or less hostile until the treaty of peace 
was signed. Brant is known to have been at Ogh- 
waga and Unadilla, and it is also true that wander¬ 
ing companies of Indians were there until a period 
long subsequent to the peace; but these survivals 
were few in numbers, and were often Oneidas 
friendly to the settlers. Cooper delayed the fare¬ 
well of Leather Stocking to Otsego Lake until 1794, 
when he put these words into his hero’s mouth: 

When I look about me at these hills where I used to 
could count sometimes twenty smokes, curling over the 
tree tops from the Delaware camps, it raises mournful 
thoughts to think that not a red skin is left of them all, 
unless it be a drunken vagabond from the Oneidas, or them 
Yankee Indians who, they say, be moving up from the 
sea shore. Well, well! The time has come at last and I 
must go. 

Men born to toil and veterans of war took up 
these new tasks in the wilderness. The first to 
enter the Susquehanna, came from the Mohawk 
and Schoharie. A number arrived between the 
surrender of Cornwallis and the conclusion of the 
treaty of peace, including Isaac Collier, who entered 
by Otsego Lake as early as 1782. Mr. Collier was 
of German descent and before the war had been a 

33 2 


WASHINGTON 


taxpayer in the Mohawk Valley. He was the 
father of Peter Collier. On the Susquehanna he 
opened a hotel, at the settlement since called after 
him, where pioneers long found food and shel¬ 
ter. 

To Cherry Valley in the spring of 1783, returned 
Colonel Campbell with his family, to find the set¬ 
tlement in a state of utter desolation. He pro¬ 
ceeded to erect a log-hut, which, a few months later, 
sheltered distinguished visitors. In the summer of 
this year George Washington ascended the Mohawk 
and passed over to the head waters of the Susque¬ 
hanna. In a letter to the Marquis de Chastelleux, 
dated in October, he says he “ traversed the coun¬ 
try to the eastern branch of the Susquehanna and 
viewed the Lake Otsego and the portage between 
that lake and the Mohawk River at Canajoharie.” 
He was accompanied by Governor Clinton, General 
Hand and others, and spent a night under Colonel 
Campbell’s roof. On the following morning, he 
went over to the lake. At the Campbell residence, 
Auchenbreck, visitors may see to-day the site of an 
apple-tree beneath which Washington drank tea. 
Governor Clinton remarked to Mrs. Campbell dur¬ 
ing the visit, that her sons would some day make 
fine soldiers; to which she answered that she 
“ hoped her country never would need their ser¬ 
vices.” “ I hope so, too,” said Washington, “ for I 
have seen enough of war.” 

Washington was much impressed by the oppor¬ 
tunity which the valley gave for communication by 
water with regions scuth and west. The same con¬ 
clusions seem to have been reached by him that had 
been formed by Cadwallader Colden nearly fifty 
years before when Surveyor-General of the Prov- 

333 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


ince. Washington wrote in the letter, already 
quoted from : 

Prompted by these actual observations, I could not help 
taking more comprehensive and extensive views of the vast 
inland navigation of these United States, from maps and the 
information of others, and could not but be struck with the 
immense diffusion and importance of it, and with the good¬ 
ness of that providence which has dealt her favors to us 
with so profuse a hand. Would to God we may have wis¬ 
dom enough to improve them. 

To Middlefield soon returned former settlers, and 
to Springfield several of those who had seen their 
homes destroyed by Brant, while to Richfield came 
the Tunnicliffes, and to Harpersfield in 1783, or 
the next year, the Harpers—John, William, Alex¬ 
ander, and Joseph—all but the last named being now 
military officers, and the women of the family com¬ 
ing from Windsor, Conn. 

Matthew Cully, in 1783, returned to his lands at 
the mouth of the Cherry Valley Creek. Below 
Portlandville in 1788 he built a grist-mill, and four 
years later his brother built a saw-mill. Following 
the Cullys in 1784 came Colonel John Moore, a 
family named Ford, and then Abraham and Jacob 
Beals. 

A contemporary of Peter Collier was John Van 
Der Werker, who settled on the river near Oneonta 
Village and built a grist-mill. Van Der Werker had 
been in the valley with Henry Scramling before the 
war, and with Scramling returned as soon as the 
conflict ceased. With Scramling came his two 
brothers, David and George, and their brothers-in- 
law, David and John Young. During the war, the 
father of the Scramlings had been killed by the Ind- 

334 


WASHINGTON 


ians, and David and George had been in Canada as 
captives. David’s wife had also been a prisoner. 
To Oneonta came Adam Quackenbush and Simeon 
Walling. Mr. Walling had gone down the valley 
in 1779 with General Clinton, and now took up 
lands at the old Indian village since known as the 
Slade farm. In Oneonta several others settled about 
1786 or later, including Aaron Brink, Baltus Him- 
mel north of the village, and Abraham Houghtal- 
ing and Peter Schwartz in the north part of the 
town. 

Still further down the river, in what is now Otego, 
the Ogdens arrived to take up their old lands. One 
of the family had been made a prisoner by Brant at 
the siege of Fort Schuyler, and carried to Canada. 
Traces of Teutonic influence may be found else¬ 
where on the Susquehanna. Perhaps one exists in 
Unadilla in the name of an old mill-race called the 
Binnekill.* But so much of it as ever existed in 
Unadilla was soon extinguished by stronger influ¬ 
ences from Connecticut. Teutonic folks and the 
Yankees did not live at peace in those pioneer times. 
Theirs was a state, sometimes of war, sometimes of 
armed neutrality ; but seldom one of peace.j* 

The Johnstons of Sidney, in May, 1784, set out 
to return from their temporary home in Florida, 
Montgomery County. In 1783 the father, the 
Rev. William Johnston, had delivered a sermon on 
the conclusion of the treaty of peace, and not long 
afterward breathed his last. Mr. Johnston, after 
the massacre of Cherry Valley, had gone to Sche¬ 
nectady, where he remained two years and then went 

* From binnen, meaning inner, and kill, a creek. 

t Out of this condition seems to have grown an early colloquial name 
for what is now the large and thriving town of Oneonta—the largest 
town in the valley above Binghamton—Klipnockie. 

335 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


to Florida. With the widow came back Witter and 
Hugh Johnston, and the daughters. 

It is probable that others came with them, includ¬ 
ing David McMaster, whose life the Johnstons had 
saved at Cherry Valley. On the farm owned in late 
years by Mr. Deyo the Johnstons spent their first 
season, reluctant to occupy the lands across the river 
where it is probable that Indians were still living. 
On crossing to their old home the next season, they 
built a log-house on Brant Hill and lived there until 
they erected a frame dwelling. 

On the Unadilla River settled Jonathan Spencer. 
He had served in the war, and came from Florida 
bringing with him a son named Orange, who was a 
surveyor. His household goods were transported 
by boat from the lake or from Cherry Valley to a 
farm about one mile below Rockdale. He had six 
other sons, and his descendants have continued to 
be numerous in the Susquehanna valley. His wife 
long survived him. Mr. Rogers well remembered 
sitting at her knee in boyhood to hear stirring tales 
of war in the Mohawk Valley. At Fort Plain she 
had herself stood guard in a block-house while the 
men were away on duty. 


336 


II 


Men Who Came 
from 

New England 

1783-1800 

O N the old frontier, as on those lands west¬ 
ward from the Fort Stanwix line now first 
open to settlement, a new race was about to 
plant homes. They were of English ancestry, but 
had had a far older racial experience in the new 
world than the Palatines and Scotch-Irish. They 
came from New England and by them, in the years 
immediately following the war, was poured forth a 
tide of migration that completely dominated for long 
years afterward Central and Western New York. 
They almost completely submerged the Palatines 
and Scotch-Irish. Leadership was, in fact, practi¬ 
cally wrested by them from those older pioneers. 

Under the act of 1779, attainting of treason, and 
declaring forfeit the lands of settlers who had taken 
up arms against the colonies, vast tracts on the fron¬ 
tier came to state ownership—for example, almost 
the entire valley of the Charlotte and extensive hold¬ 
ings along the Mohawk. Out of these tracts and 
many others, the New Englanders made their pur¬ 
chases. One of the sufferers from that act was Col¬ 
onel John Butler, and another Colonel Guy John¬ 
son, who at German Flatts had held title to 2,000 
acres ; but greater losers still were the children of 

337 






THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Sir William Johnson, and notably Sir John, whose 
inherited domain was the largest ever held in the 
Province by any one man except his father and pos¬ 
sibly one or two of the Dutch patroons. These suf¬ 
ferers were mostly the Scotch Highlanders and Irish 
who had fled to Canada in 1775, the act of forfeiture 
affecting few, if any, of the Palatines or Scotch-Irish, 
who almost to a man had been patriots. 

Many of the pioneers from New England had 
served in the Revolution. Some had gone up the 
Mohawk with Benedict Arnold to Fort Schuyler in 
1777; others were at Cherry Valley with Colonel 
Alden; others went down the Susquehanna with 
General Clinton, and thence to the fertile lands of 
the Genesee. Most notable of all the impressions 
they had carried home were impressions of the fer¬ 
tility of this New York soil and the sparsity of its 
population. This was strikingly true of the Gene¬ 
see country, where the ears of corn they had plucked 
from extensive fields cultivated by Indians awakened 
astonishment that still survived. Accordingly the 
history of the re-peopling. of this frontier is mainly 
a history of the migration poured into it from 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, by a people whom 
Professor Lounsbury has eulogized as “ born lev¬ 
ellers of the forest, the greatest wielders of the axe 
the world has ever known.” They brought not 
only skill with the axe, but certain arts and refine¬ 
ments in domestic life before unknown to the fron¬ 
tier, and with those arts a spirit of enterprise and in¬ 
vention, with an initiatory energy which carried their 
own fortunes far and which, more perhaps than all 
other human forces, have made the central and west¬ 
ern parts of New York State what they now are. 

Owing to delays in concluding the Treaty of 

338 


MEN FROM NEW ENGLAND 


Peace, the tide of immigration from New England 
did not set in until the spring and summer of 1784.* 
Perhaps the earliest man who arrived in the Mo¬ 
hawk Valley from Connecticut was Hugh White, 
founder of Whitestown, which lies a few miles west 
of Utica. He came in the spring of 1784, as the 
leader of a conquering band that was soon to fol¬ 
low him. He ascended the Mohawk in a bateau, 
passing on the way many abandoned farms with 
buildings reduced to masses of charred logs and 
timbers, and with isolated chimneys standing black 
and grim against northern and southern skies. In 
the following year, men from Connecticut planted a 
settlement within gunshot of Fort Schuyler, and 
between that year and the beginning of the new 
century so great was the influx to the German Flatts 
neighborhood that 10,000 settlers are believed to 
have arrived in Herkimer County alone. Many of 
these were from Western Massachusetts, where they 
had found a new impulse to migration from Shays’s 
Rebellion, in which they had taken part, and in the 
consequences of the suppression of which they had 
had an unhappy share. 

But it was Connecticut that made the largest con¬ 
tribution to the settlement of the frontier. As Vir¬ 
ginia was the mother of Presidents, so has Connec¬ 
ticut been a mother of States. From the Hudson 
River westward to the Pacific through the line of 
Northern States, there is hardly a town, says Trum¬ 
bull, “ in which persons may not be found whose 
ancestral roots dip back into Hartford County.” In 
the New York Constitutional Convention of 1821, 

* Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781, but the treaty was not 
signed until September 3, 1783; nor was New York evacuated by the 
British until November 25, 1783. The treaty was finally ratified by 
Congress on June 4, 1784. 


339 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


a majority of the 127 members were either born in 
Connecticut or were sons of fathers who were born 
there. Calhoun declared that, at one time the mem¬ 
bers of Congress who were either born or reared in 
Connecticut lacked but five of a majority of that 
body. The single town of Litchfield nearly forty 
years ago had given birth to 13 United States Sen¬ 
ators, 22 members of Congress from New York, 15 
State supreme court judges, 9 presidents of colleges, 
18 other college professors, and 11 governors and 
lieutenant-governors of States. 

Aside from the southern and southwestern parts 
of the State, about all the early settlements in Con¬ 
necticut sprang from the original river towns of 
Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, which have 
been happily described as “ strictly speaking, the 
original cradle of empire.” Family names familiar 
in the Mohawk and Susquehanna valleys from the 
earliest times, may be found in the records of those 
Hartford county towns. All the New England 
States found representation, but the showing Con¬ 
necticut makes far surpasses that of the other 
States. 

The beginning of New England interest in the 
Susquehanna we must assign to the coming of John 
Sergeant and Elihu Spencer, who, as missionaries, 
arrived before 1750. Mr. Spencer was a native of 
Windsor and Gideon Hawley, who followed him, 
was also from Connecticut. After the visits of these 
men, no one in New England had his eyes more 
intently fixed on this valley than Dr. Wheelock, of 
Lebanon, to whom the labors of both these men had 
become well known. Dr. Wheelock’s Indian school 
departed from Lebanon in 1770, but it had been 
long enough settled there to arouse an interest in 

340 


MEN FROM NEW ENGLAND 


this valley in the minds of boys who as men became 
Susquehanna pioneers. 

When John Harper, with Joseph Brant and other 
Indian boys, attended that school, Sluman Wattles, 
the Ouleout pioneer, was a lad living in Lebanon, 
eight or ten years of age, casting more than one eager 
glance at those dusky children of the western forest 
lands. In the same period, Daniel Bissell, the Una- 
dilla pioneer, was a boy in Lebanon, twelve or four¬ 
teen years of age. He likewise saw these Indian 
boys, and must have known them well. The same 
fact is true of Nathaniel Wattles, also from Lebanon, 
and of James Hughston, his cousin, both of whom 
came to the Ouleout. It will be remembered that, 
during the Revolution, the wives and daughters of 
the Harpers of Harpersfield returned to East Wind¬ 
sor—the place from which the Harpers emigrated 
before the Revolution—where they remained until 
the war closed, when they went again to the settle¬ 
ment on the Charlotte. When Sluman Wattles 
came to the Ouleout, he had an interest in lands 
which John and Alexander Harper had purchased 
of the Indians before the Revolution. It is interest¬ 
ing further to recall that Jonathan Edwards, largely 
through whose influence Gideon Hawley had been 
sent into the valley, was a native of Windsor. Into 
this same part of Connecticut, early in the eigh¬ 
teenth century before the settlement of Cherry Val¬ 
ley, had come many Scotch-Irish. 

West of the Fort Stanwix line the Susquehanna 
Valley was invaded by many men from Vermont 
who were among the “ sufferers ” in that State—men 
whose titles to real estate had been lost in the settle¬ 
ment of the disputed New Hampshire Grants, and 
to whom as compensation were given lands in the 

34i 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Susquehanna Valley which New York had purchased 
from the Oneidas. One payment made to Oneidas 
and Tuscaroras was $11,500, and another to Onei¬ 
das was $5,500, with an annuity of $600 forever. 
Israel Smith, who settled in Sidney in 1790 on 
lands west of the Johnston farm, came from Brat- 
tleboro and received from the State 640 acres. An¬ 
other “sufferer” who settled on a large tract in 
Bainbridge was Colonel Timothy Church. He had 
had correspondence with Governor Clinton during 
the Revolution on public affairs, and had taken part 
in the battle of Bennington. His ancestral line 
ran back to Hartford County. Ransom Hunt, of 
Otego, was also from Vermont, although he did 
not acquire title from the State, his tract comprising 
1,800 acres. George Mumford, who came to the 
mouth of Cherry Valley Creek with his wife, four 
sons and five daughters, was from Bennington. 

But the main fact is that the upper Susquehanna 
lands were more indebted to Connecticut than to 
any other part of the country. From Hebron, a 
town near Lebanon, men came to Franklin; to 
Unadillafrom Hebron the four brothers Cone, and 
long after them their nephew, Salmon G. Cone ; and 
to Delhi a man who was to reach much eminence in 
the State, Erastus Root. To Laurens from Wind¬ 
sor, in 1790, came Jacob Butts; to Unadillafrom 
North Bolton Samuel Rogers and his wife, natives 
of East Windsor; to Cherry Valley from Chatham, 
Dr. Joseph White ; to Sidney from Hartford 
County, Levi Baxter ; to Sidney from Ashford, in 
1798, John Avery; to Unadilla from Danbury, 
William Wilmot; to Morris, in 1792, from Salis¬ 
bury, Jonathan Moore ; to Unadillafrom Norwalk, 
Samuel Betts ; to a farm through which runs the 

342 



MEN FROM NEW ENGLAND 


line between Unadillaand Butternuts, in 1810, from 
Fairfield County, the father of the late Judge Heze- 
kiah Sturges ; to Unadilla from New Milford, in 
1800, Isaac Hayes and Curtis Noble; to Otego 
from Roxbury, in 1809, David Weller. 

From various parts of Connecticut came others— 
Timothy Beach to the Ouleout, in 1784; Amos 
Preston and Nathan Newell to Laurens, in 1789; 
Jared Goodyear to Milford; William Rose to 
Binghamton, in 1787 ; Peter Bradley and Gould 
Bacon to Sidney ; Captain Abel de Forest to Ed- 
meston, in 1795, and many settlers to Cooperstown 
before the century closed. The reader who bears 
in mind how the most of the Connecticut towns 
here named were settled from the original river 
towns, will see the intimate relation of this move¬ 
ment of pioneers to Otsego County. 

A reminder of this debt that will last longer than 
the names of individuals is found in the names of 
Otsego towns. Plainfield is a town in Windham 
County; Middlefield a town in Middlesex County, 
while New London County has a town named Lis¬ 
bon and one named Exeter. West of the Unadilla 
River the fact is again to be observed in New Ber¬ 
lin, named from Berlin in Hartford County, and in 
Guilford and Norwich, ancient and well-known Con¬ 
necticut names. More obvious still is the name of 
Windsor, which supplanted the historic name of 
Oghwaga*—and so might the list be extended until 
it became wearisome. 

To Richfield in 1790 came the father of Levi 
Beardsley, with his wife, two brothers, and several 
children, including Levi, who was then four years 

* Windsor was settled almost entirely from New England. In 1791 
Lincklaen found there thirty families embracing about 300 souls. 

343 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


old. Mr. Beardsley had purchased a tract of land 
of Mr. Banyar for $1.25 per acre, and came from 
Rensselaer County by the Mohawk Valley and the 
Continental road. The family settled temporarily 
on the Herkimer farm, at the foot of Schuyler’s 
Lake, where were still standing “ two small log- 
houses, more properly huts.” This farm was re¬ 
tained for two years “ for the common benefit of the 
colony to furnish hay and grain till we could clear 
the land and raise crops in Richfield.” 

Many persons followed this family into the coun¬ 
try, looking for lands, and the Beardsley homes be¬ 
came “ places of rendezvous for all comers.” They 
generally “ slept on the floor before the fire on straw 
beds, for we had scarcely a spare one of other de¬ 
scription at that time.” The Beardsleys finally set¬ 
tled on the purchase four miles west of Richfield 
Springs, where the Tunnicliffe family had now a 
second time taken up a home. One of the Tunni- 
cliffes built a saw-mill in 1791, and in 1792 a grist¬ 
mill ; Judge Jedediah Peck being the millwright, an 
occupation to which he added those of preacher and 
politician. 

Meanwhile to Springfield, from the East, came 
Captain Samuel Crafts, and, about 1795, Matthew 
Halsey, who had taken part in the battle of Long 
Island. He was from Bridgehampton, Long 
Island, where his family had been settled for 150 
years. In the town of Maryland settled Amos 
Spencer, who with his father had served in the Ninth 
New York militia regiment, recruited from Albany 
County. The family seems to have come originally 
from Connecticut, but afterward lived in Hillsdale, 
Mass. Descendants settled on the Unadilla River 
near Sidney, and later went to Unadilla Village. 

344 


MEN FROM NEW ENGLAND 


On the Susquehanna, just east of the mouth of 
the Unadilla, as early as 1787 and probably before 
that year, land had been occupied by David Baits on 
what was long known as the Bundy farm. It is 
recorded of David Baits, that in the year 1787, 
when the settlement was threatened with famine, he 
brought a boat-load of flour up the river from North¬ 
ampton, Pa. He had served in the war and bore 
the title of captain. He often held office in the 
town where he lived. 

Gould Bacon settled on Stowell’s Island below 
Afton. His name appears on the official list of 
those to whom New York State in 1788 gave com¬ 
pensation for losses in the Vermont disputes.* 
Stowell’s Island had at least one other settler in 
1786. This was Elnathan Bush, who descended the 
Susquehanna River in a canoe from Cooperstown. 
Mr. Bush afterward lived in Bainbridge. On the 
occasion of a freshet, in or about 1786, Mr. Bacon’s 
farm was overflown and he retreated to the top of 
a tree. It was two or three days before the water re¬ 
ceded. He had taken with him into the tree a 
satchel filled with provisions, but through accident 
he lost hold of his source of supplies and they went 
the way of all other things, down the stream. In 
the hunger that ensued, he subsisted on a raw pump¬ 
kin, caught from the flood as it passed along his 
way. Mr. Bacon afterward came to the Unadilla 
River, and lived on land since known as the Miller 
farm. He died a bachelor and his tombstone 
records that, 

He toiled for heirs he knew not whom 
And straight was seen no more. 

* Another form of compensation was actual money. Out of a fund of 
$30,000 Gouldsborough Banyar received $7 212. 

345 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


The rapidity with which lands on the Susque¬ 
hanna were thus occupied is a striking illustration of 
the volume of immigration which set in all over the 
frontier and west of it as soon as the war closed. By 
1820 Otsego County had a population of 44,800, 
nearly as large a population as it has ever had since. 


346 


Ill 


Pioneers by Way of 
Wattles’s Ferry 

W HEN in the summer of 1784, Tim¬ 
othy Beach reached the Scotch Settlement 
at the mouth of the Ouleout he found five 
families living within that neighborhood. One was 
the family of Nathaniel Wattles, and another was 
named Herrick. The probability is that Nathaniel 
and Sluman Wattles were the first to start that 
stream of Connecticut migration which was to pour 
its tide across the hills from the Hudson at Catskill 
to the Susquehanna at Wattles’s Ferry for the 
next generation. It was from Nathaniel, however, 
that this ferry got its name. He lived there for 
several years, and became an important factor in the 
settlement of all the country round about. He 
opened roads and established a hotel, and in 1797 
was elected a member of the Assembly, but soon after 
reaching Albany he suddenly died. James Bacon 
of Franklin, who preached his funeral sermon eight 
days later, said of his pioneer work— 

He underwent many hardships in making roads and other 
improvements for the benefit of a new country, and broke 
the way for a large settlement. He came with a small in¬ 
terest in this country, and by honest industry accumulated 
a good interest and brought up, so far, nine children, the 
oldest of which is twenty-four and the youngest about 2 
years. We cannot ascertain the advantages this benevolent 
man was to this western country in clearing roads and by his 
industry bringing many into these parts and feeding the poor. 

347 







THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Sluman Wattles, afterward county judge, settled 
on the Ouleout in the town of Franklin.* His im¬ 
mediate purpose in coming into the valley in 1784, 
was to survey and lay out in lots a large tract of 
land that extended from a line near the Susquehanna 
—probably the Wallace Patent line—southward to 
the Delaware. It was known as the Livingston 
patent. He had some interest in the tract at that 
time, and afterward became part owner of it. It 
was a portion of a tract which Colonel John and 
Captain Alexander Harper had purchased of the 
Indians before the war, and was afterward owned 
by a company including Peter Van Brugh Livings¬ 
ton, and one or both of the Harpers. 

Judge Wattles and the Harpers had been ac¬ 
quainted in Connecticut, Windsor and Lebanon 
being neighboring towns. Each was of Scotch- 
Irish descent. As Harper had lived with men of 
that stock in Cherry Valley, so had Mr. Wattles, 
before coming to the Ouleout, lived with Scotch- 
Irish at a settlement near Bloomville on the Dela¬ 
ware. Mr. Wattles’s wife was Scotch and a mem¬ 
ber of his family was married to a man in Cherry 
Valley. While it therefore is true that the com¬ 
ing of these men marked the beginning of the Con¬ 
necticut stream to Wattles’s Ferry, their coming was 
an outcome of influences exerted once more by that 
Scotch-Irish people who first planted settlements in 
the Susquehanna Valley. 

While engaged in making the survey, Mr. Wat¬ 
tles selected a site for his home in Franklin. He 

* Franklin was named after William Franklin, the natural son of Ben¬ 
jamin Franklin, who owned land in what is now that town. He was 
one of the colonial governors of New Jersey, and his father’s only son. 
He became a Tory in the Revolution and thus embittered the old age of 
his father. 

348 



THE SUSQUEHANNA AT UNADILLA VILLAGE 
(Site of Wattles’s Ferry in the middle distance.) 








WATTLES’S FERRY 


erected a log house with an elm-bark roof, and 
brought his family from Bloomville in 1785. Be¬ 
sides his wife he had three children, his brother John 
carrying one of the children in his arms. The house¬ 
hold goods were transported on the backs of horses, 
and at night they camped out in the open woods, 
reaching the Ouleout on the following day. 

Indians still dwelt along this stream, and made 
claims to the judge’s land. But a council soon 
resulted in an agreement by which his title was ac¬ 
knowledged after the Indians had received several 
presents, including a barrel of rum. For six months 
Mrs. Wattles never saw any white man except her 
husband and his brother. Wolves were numerous 
in the forest, and their frequent howling made the 
nights extremely uncomfortable. 

About 1800 Judge Wattles sold his farm, and for 
twenty-five years afterward lived in East Sidney. 
He lies buried there in a rural cemetery. As a 
magistrate he acted for a large territory, and when 
Delaware County was organized became county 
judge. Standing at his grave in the autumn of 
1891, a thought arose which remains potent still. 
It was that when Sluman Wattles died, he took a 
man’s life along with him. 

Not long after the arrival of Nathaniel Wattles, 
James Hughston, also of Lebanon, followed in his 
steps and settled on a farm near the bridge that 
crosses the Ouleout, just above its mouth. His 
wife came on horseback, with a bed and other arti¬ 
cles strapped to a horse behind her. For her first 
child she utilized a piece of a hollow tree, or a sap 
trough, as a cradle. Mr. Hughston served as a 
magistrate in Sidney for about forty years. He was 
also supervisor for several terms, and was once elected 

349 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


to the Legislature. He was the father of Jonas A. 
Hughston,* and died in 1846. Later settlements 
along the Ouleout were made by Stephen Dewey, 
who came i.n 1797, Captain Oliver Gager, Nathaniel 
Wolcott, and Josiah Thatcher. 

Timothy Beach before coming to the valley had 
settled on a farm in Connecticut, after giving up a 
life at sea, during which he had once been ship¬ 
wrecked and had fallen among pirates. He set out 
for the Susquehanna with a son twelve years of age, 
leaving the Hudson at Catskill, where a few families 
were living. He crossed the wilderness to the Sus¬ 
quehanna, the distance nearly 100 miles, and had a 
half-breed Indian for his guide. 

From Cairo Mr. Beach followed the Potawa trail 
on horseback through “ a wilderness of the most 
hideous description,” tenanted by deer, panthers, and 
wolves, with which they had more than one encoun¬ 
ter. At last the travellers reached the Susquehanna, 
where Nathaniel Wattles, says Priest, “ kept a skiff 
for the accommodation of those who wished to cross 
and recross.” They started down the river and on 
reaching a point near the site of Bainbridge, Mr. 
Beach had a dream in which his father warned him 
against going further. His intention had been to 
settle in Oghwaga, but he concluded now to return 
to the Ferry. 

Mr. Beach had a considerable sum of money on 
his person, and his son had unguardedly made this 
fact known to the Indian guide. Other Indians, in 
consequence, had now appeared on the shore. The 
guide gave a loud outcry, causing them to rush into 
the water toward Mr. Beach’s boat. Mr. Beach 

* Member of Congress in 1855-1856, and afterward United States 
Marshal at Shanghai, China, where he died in 1862. 

35 ° 


WATTLES’S FERRY 


met them in a friendly way and gave them a keg of 
rum, with which they went ashore, where they were 
soon reduced to a state of unconsciousness. Under 
cover of a terrific thunderstorm, Mr. Beach got safely 
away. By daybreak he and his son had pushed the 
boat up the stream to the mouth of Carr’s Creek. 
From this point they proceeded on foot through the 
dripping forest, and secured the aid of Mr. Wattles 
in bringing the boat over the remaining distance. 

At the Ferry Mr. Beach met Richard and Daniel 
Ogden, who were making a tour of exploration, and 
decided to settle at that place. Selecting some land 
he returned to Connecticut, travelling on horseback 
through the woods with his boy behind him. In 
November he began his return journey to Wattles’s 
Ferry with his family, choosing the route by the Con¬ 
tinental road and Otsego Lake. They camped one 
night on the site of Cooperstown, and at the mouth 
of Cherry Valley Creek met a party of Indians on 
their way to hunting grounds. When they reached 
their destination, they “ discovered the remnants of 
a few log-houses tumbled to ruins, said to have been 
the habitations of a few Scotch settlers who had pene¬ 
trated the wilderness before the revolution.” 

The trees were now bare of leaves, late autumn 
having set in. “ Exactly opposite this situation,” 
says Priest, in his narrative, which is given as Beach’s 
own story, “ stood a lofty mountain, exceedingly 
steep and thickly timbered with evergreen pines, the 
haunt of panthers, bears and wolves, while at its 
base meandered the Susquehanna.” Around the 
few log - houses were small clearings with sugar- 
maples plentiful in the adjacent forest. In one of 
the houses, signs of occupation were seen. A half 
loaf of bread, baked from pounded corn, was lying on 

35 1 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


a table made from a split log, while near the door 
stood the stump of a tree that had been hollowed 
out at the top for use in pounding corn with a pes¬ 
tle. Soon the occupants returned. They were 
white men, hunters, and had a deer, which Mr. Beach 
and his family were invited to share with them. In 
one of the other log-huts was found the skeleton of 
a man named Skillings, who had been killed by the 
Indians. 

The second year after his arrival, Mr. Beach 
found near the river a large chest filled with various 
domestic articles, including three linen spinning 
wheels and two flax hatchels, which had been hidden 
by former settlers. Priest says that much ironware 
had been buried “at the upper end of Unadilla 
Village near the water’s edge.” Mr. Beach met with 
an untimely fate. The third year after he arrived 
he was conveying a man with a blacksmith’s kit of 
tools down the river in a canoe, during high water, 
and when near the place where his father had ap¬ 
peared to him in a dream on his first visit, the canoe 
was upset and he was drowned. His body was 
found some twenty miles further down the stream 
and buried five miles below the site of Binghamton. 
By this time, a considerable increase had been made 
in the population of the valley. Mills had been 
erected, schools started, and doctors and merchants 
had arrived. 

Mr. Beach came during the same year that the 
Johnstons returned. Of the five families he found 
none had been on the ground more than a few months. 
The land he took up was long afterward known 
as the John M. Betts farm. He had a brother 
named Ebenezer, who was one of the first settlers in 
the woods back of Catskill—“a man,” says Priest, 

35 2 


WATTLES’S FERRY 


“ of great activity and benevolence of nature like his 
brother.” Although Timothy came to the Susque¬ 
hanna from Weston, Conn., his family was an an¬ 
cient one in Stratford. Descendants still live in 
Franklin and Walton. A son was William Beach, 
known familiarly as “ Pump ” Beach, who led a 
nomadic sort of life as a pedler, and writer of rude 
verse. 

At Wattles’s Ferry stood a hotel and perhaps a 
store, the usual pioneer promises that a town would 
grow up. But other men soon arrived, by whom it 
was determined that the village for this neighbor¬ 
hood should lie on the other side of the river. Nat¬ 
ure, indeed, aided them, for there was found a 
stream flowing into the Susquehanna which pro¬ 
vided power for mills, the stream called Martin 
Brook. The men who founded this settlement 
across the river, that was to take the name of Una- 
dilla Village, one of the most beautiful of smaller 
villages in that part of the country, were from Con¬ 
necticut. Eminent among them were Daniel Bis- 
sell, Guido L. Bissell, Solomon Martin, and Gurdon 
Huntington, some of whom arrived as early as 
I 79°- 

Each of these men, in a different way, was a fine 
example of the New England pioneer who abandoned 
the comforts of his native locality and went westward 
to subdue forests and found thriving villages. Here 
at Unadilla they purchased large tracts of land, built 
houses, grist and saw mills, opened a hotel, started 
a store, and erected a school-house. The house 
\\ which Gurdon Huntington built still stands in the 
centre of the village in its original condition, and on 
If its original site, the oldest structure in all that neigh- 
L borhood. 


353 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Ten years after these men came, an old primitive 
road to Catskill was converted into a turnpike. The 
tide of immigration then set in with new vigor. Two 
important men who came from Connecticut in 1800 
were Isaac Hayes and Curtis Noble. They became 
frontier merchants, large minded, enterprising, and 
popular, and in the course of a few years were mas¬ 
ters of an extensive trade up and down the valley, 
and embracing the hill-country to the north and 
south. A kind of flat-bottom boat called an ark 
conveyed to the Chesapeake the produce of the 
country, and from New York, over the turnpike, 
they brought into the valley such articles in general 
use as the pioneers could not themselves produce. 
Four years later came Stephen Benton from Sheffield, 
Mass. He opened another store and became a 
large factor in frontier life. Next arrived from 
Chester, Conn., Sherman Page, a lawyer who rose 
to local eminence as a judge and twice went to Con¬ 
gress. 

Once the stream to Wattles’s Ferry had set in, it 
flowed strong and full. Trails and marked trees 
were at first the only guides across from Catskill, 
but each pioneer had done something to cut away 
the brush and mark out the better paths. No wagon, 
however, penetrated as far as the ferry until 1787. 
When the pioneer bound for places further west had 
reached the river, the remaining distance proved 
less difficult, for here he could secure a “ battoe.” 
Colonel William Rose, the pioneer of Binghamton, 
came by this route. Before him, Joseph Leonard 
had made the first white settlement in Bingham¬ 
ton, coming up from the Wyoming Valley ; but 
Colonel Rose followed him two weeks later, taking 
the wilderness route to Wattles’s Ferry. Indians 

354 


WATTLES’S FERRY 

were often seen by him on his journey down the 
river. 

In the same year, came the family of Mr. Whit¬ 
ney, founder of Whitney’s Point, who has left a 
record of the settlements he observed along the way. 
Thirteen miles out from Catskill were the two fami¬ 
lies of Joseph Shaw and Captain Trowbridge, both 
of whom afterward went on to Binghamton. Ten 
miles further on they found a single white man. 
From thence to Windham they passed one or two 
families. Another thirteen miles brought them to 
the home of two brothers, and three miles further 
to the home of Mr. Moore. Harpersfield, in which 
were dwelling five or six families, lay twenty miles 
beyond this point. In Franklin they found a small 
settlement, and between the Ouleout and the mouth 
of the Unadilla a few families. 

Only an Indian trail existed westward from this 
point. The Whitneys had come into the country 
with a wagon as far as the ferry, and were the first 
persons who attempted the use of one in this wilder¬ 
ness. It was not until the winter of 1788 that a 
sleigh could be drawn as far down the river as Bing¬ 
hamton. Until 1790, settlers at Binghamton came 
to Wattles’s Ferry to get their corn ground. The 
mill at East Sidney, built by Abraham Fuller, early 
in the war, or just before it, owned later in the cen¬ 
tury by Silas Bennett, and afterward called Dibble’s 
Mills, long supplied patrons from very distant places. 

Early settlers in Tioga County came in 1791 on 
foot to Wattles’s Ferry from Stockbridge, Mass., with 
packs on their backs. Owego was settled in 1786 
by a man who entered from Otsego Lake. Settlers 
on the Genesee often arrived by Wattles’s Ferry. 
One of the Binghamton pioneers was a man named 

355 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Dickinson, who brought with him a boy destined to 
distinction as Daniel S. Dickinson. It would be 
easy to multiply instances of men, the founders of 
large and flourishing towns in Southern and Western 
New York, who penetrated the wilderness by the 
highway that had Wattles’s Ferry for the terminus 
of travel by foot or horse and the beginning of 
travel by boat. 


35 6 


IV 


William Cooper, 
of 

Cooperstown 


1785 


W ILLIAM COOPER, the father of the 
novelist, wishing to learn the boundaries 
of lands in which he had an interest, came 
to Otsego Lake in 1785, accompanied by a party of 
surveyors. These lands were those which George 
Croghan had secured in 1768, as compensation for 
lands lost elsewhere under the Treaty of Fort 
Stanwix. Croghan had mortgaged them to William 
Franklin, son of Benjamin Franklin, and in default 
of payment judgments of foreclosure had been ob¬ 
tained against him. The title by various deeds of 
assignment afterward passed to Mr. Cooper and 
Andrew Craig, both of Burlington, N. J. 

Mr. Cooper arrived in the autumn by way of 
Cherry Valley, and obtained his first sight of the 
lake, which his son was to celebrate as Glimmerglass, 
from the top of a tree on the hill east of Coopers¬ 
town known as Mt. Vision. In the following spring 
he induced several families to settle on his land. One 
of these was Israel Guild, and another was John 
Miller. William Ellison and a widow named John¬ 
son were among others who soon came. Mr. 
Cooper brought his wife into the country for a visit 
in 1787. He drove in a chaise from the Mohawk 

357 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


to the head of the lake, and went down the lake in 
a canoe. Mrs. Johnson erected a frame house in 
1786, which was used as a hotel. In 1786 William 
Abbott arrived, and then James White. 

By the summer of 1787, the most of the Cooper 
lands about the lake had been taken up, many of 
the settlers coming from Connecticut. Mr. Cooper 
built a house for himself in 1789, and in October, 
1790, brought his family into the country, the house¬ 
hold, including the servants, numbering fifteen, and 
the youngest member of it an infant destined to wide 
literary fame.* The settlement in 1790 is estimated 
to have embraced thirty-five other inhabitants, and 
by 1791 to have had twenty houses and stores, with 
100 inhabitants. Richard R. Smith, son of Richard 
Smith, of the Otego patent, in the winter of 1789— 
1790, opened the first store. A court-house and 
jail had been built in 1791. Mr. Smith was the 
first sheriff of the county. From his father, in 1 7 93 > 
he acquired title to a tract of land on the lake, the 
same being a part of the Croghan patent. Feni- 
more Cooper says the settlement in 1795 had fifty 
buildings—an incongruous group from which “ rose 
the mansion of the judge, towering above all its 
neighbors.” Fruit-trees, which the Indians had cul¬ 
tivated, were already “ beginning to assume the moss 

* No authorized life of James Fenimore Cooper has been written, it 
having been his wish that none should be. But an excellent substitute, 
in the form of a biographical essay or study, has been published by Pro¬ 
fessor Lounsbury, the note in which it is written being seen in its final 
passage as follows: “America has had several authors, gifted with 
higher spiritual insight than he, with broader and juster views of life, 
with finer ideals of literary art, and, above all, with far greater delicacy 
of taste. But she counts on the scanty roll of her men of letters, the 
name of no one who acted from purer patriotism or loftier principles. 
She finds among them all no manlier nature and no more heroic soul.” 
Cooper died at the age of sixty-two, having spent about thirty-seven 
years of his life in Cooperstown. 

358 







Cm c+a* c**' 








(From an engraving, by J. B. Forrest, of a miniature by H. Chilton.) 











WILLIAM COOPER 


and inclination of age." William Cooper’s later 
residence, the Elizabethan mansion called Otsego 
Hall, was erected in 1797-1799.* 

An early storekeeper was a Frenchman named F. 
Z. Le Quoy, or Le Quoy de Mersereau, who had 
been Governor of the French Island of Martinique 
in the West Indies. By a curious coincidence M. 
Renouard, who had settled several miles to the west¬ 
ward, one day in 1793 while in Cooperstown, entered 
M. Le Quoy’s store to purchase some tobacco and, 
astonished to find that he knew the proprietor, 
walked out in an indignant state of mind. While 
Governor of Martinique, Le Quoy, it appears, had 
refused to confirm the appointment of Renouard as 
port captain of St. Pierre, and an estrangement was 
the result.f 

Very little has been known by the general public, 
of William Cooper. The cyclopaedias have almost 
entirely neglected him. That he founded the town 
which bears his name ; that he dealt largely in fron¬ 
tier lands ; that he was the first judge of Otsego 
County—these facts have been familiar, but they 

* R. Monroe Smith erroneously says Richard Smith of the Otego pat¬ 
ent built this mansion, lived in it for some years, called it Smith Hall, 
and sold it to Cooper, who “ changed the name to Otsego Hall.” Smith 
Hall stood elsewhere. In a deed from Richard Smith to Samuel Albro 
for land in lot 44 of the Otego patent, dated October 3, 1795, and among 
Mr. Coad’s papers, Smith is described as “of Smith Hall in the township 
of Unadilla. ” Cooperstown, then as now, was in the township of Otsego. 
Smith Hall really stood in what is now the town of Laurens, then a part 
of the town of Unadilla. The house was still standing a few years ago. 

t It is quite possible that Le Quoy had made the acquaintance of a 
beautiful daughter of Martinique named Josephine de La Pagerie who, 
after her first husband, the Viscount de Beauharnais, had been guillo¬ 
tined in Paris during the Reign of Terror, became the wife of Napoleon 
Bonaparte. Josephine was born in Martinique in 1763. She remained 
there until 1778, when she went to France. In 1787 she returned to 
Martinique, remaining three years, nursing her aged mother. After the 
French Revolution began, she returned to Paris; and Le Quoy, about 
the same time, came to New York, whence he went to Cooperstown. 

359 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


practically stand alone. William Cooper was more 
than a capable frontiersman, who reared a son des¬ 
tined to become famous. He was himself a man of 
intelligence, gifted, and cultivated. His mind had 
breadth, acuteness, and force. He knew how to 
write, and wrote with grace and power. 

Near the close of his life, or about 1800, he wrote 
a series of letters concerning his work in the settle¬ 
ment of the New York frontier and in 1810 they 
were published in Dublin, where their purpose ap¬ 
pears to have been to promote immigration. From 
these letters many things are apparent, and the 
most striking is that Judge Cooper was a much 
larger factor in the settlement, not only of Otsego 
County, but of several other counties in this State 
beyond Otsego, than has commonly been supposed. 
With an honest pride, he recalled that “ there are 
40,000 souls now holding land, directly or indirectly, 
under me.” He had “ already settled more acres 
than any man in America.” Judge Cooper suc¬ 
ceeded in this work when others had failed. His 
mind was practical and far-sighted, his spirit liberal. 
The man had a genius for bringing men together in 
the wilderness and making them prosper. 

The reader may also learn from these letters that 
Fenimore Cooper’s literary gifts came to him by in¬ 
heritance. His father wrote with a command of him¬ 
self, a mastery of expression, a clearness and power 
which, if not at all rare in literature, certainly come 
to us in these letters as a delightful surprise. Feni¬ 
more Cooper’s use of English has been admired, 
with qualifications. It is obvious that he was not 
a supreme master of style. He was somewhat 
wanting in literary feeling. The things admired in 
his books have been admired, in spite of certain 

360 



WILLIAM COOPER 


defects, as pure literature. But the novelist’s father 
had style. There is hardly a line in these letters 
that one would blot out or change. They fit the 
purpose and hold the attention. Nothing in them 
has been carelessly done. 

The extracts printed below show something of the 
work this pioneer did for Otsego and other counties, 
and something of the life amid which Fenimore 
Cooper spent his childhood and youth—in that 
distant wilderness where Leather Stocking fished in 
the waters of the lake, and hunted in the still forests 
that covered the Otsego hills. 

I began with the disadvantage of a small capital, and the 
encumbrance of a large family, and yet I have already set¬ 
tled more acres than any man in America. I am now de¬ 
scending the vale of life, and I must acknowledge that I look 
back with self-complacency upon what I have done, and am 
proud of having been an instrument in reclaiming such large 
and fruitful tracts from the waste of creation. And I ques¬ 
tion whether that sensation is not now a recompense more 
grateful to me than all the other profits I have reaped. 

In 1785 I visited the rough and hilly country of Otsego, 
where there existed not an inhabitant, nor any trace of a 
road; I was alone, 300 miles from home, without bread, 
1 meat, or food of any kind ; fire and fishing tackle were my 
only means of subsistence. I caught trout in the brook and 
roasted them on the ashes. My horse fed on the grass that 
grew by the edge of the waters. I laid me down to sleep 
in my watch coat, nothing but the melancholy wilderness 
around me. In this way I explored the country, formed 
my plans of future settlement, and meditated upon the spot 
where a place of trade or a village should afterward be es¬ 
tablished. 

In May, 1786, I opened the sales of 40,000 acres, 
which in sixteen days were all taken up by the poorest 
order of men. I soon after established a store, and went 

3 61 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


to live among them, and continued so to do till 1790, 
when I brought on my family. For the ensuing four 
years the scarcity of provisions was a serious calamity; the 
country was mountainous, and there were neither roads nor 
bridges. 

But the greatest discouragement was in the extreme 
poverty of the people, none of whom had the means of 
clearing more than a small spot in the midst of the thick 
and lofty woods, so that their grain grew chiefly in the 
shade; their maize did not ripen, their wheat was blasted, 
and the little they did gather they had no mill to grind 
within twenty miles’ distance; not one in twenty had a 
horse, and the way lay through rapid streams, across 
swamps, or over bogs. They had neither provisions to 
take with them nor money to purchase them; nor if they 
had, were any to be found on their way. If the father of 
a family went abroad to labor for bread, it cost him three 
times its value before he could bring it home, and all the 
business on his farm stood still till his return. 

I resided among them, and saw too clearly how bad their 
condition was. I erected a storehouse, and during each 
Winter filled it with large quantities of grain, purchased in 
distant places. I procured from my friend, Henry Drinker, 
a credit for a large quantity of sugar kettles; he also lent 
me some potash kettles, which we conveyed as best we 
could, sometimes by partial roads on sleighs, and sometimes 
over the ice. By this means I established potash works 
among the settlers, and made them debtor for their bread 
and laboring utensils. I also gave them credit for their 
maple sugar and potash, at a price that would bear trans¬ 
portation, and the first year after the adoption of this plan 
I collected in one mass 43 hogsheads of sugar and 300 
barrels of pot and pearl ash, worth about $9,000. This 
kept the people together and at home, and the country soon 
assumed a new face. 

I had not funds of my own sufficient for the opening of 
new roads, but I collected the people at convenient seasons, 
and by joint efforts we were able to throw bridges over 

362 



OTSEGO HALL, COOPERSTOWN 
(The home of J. Fenimore Cooper.) 

(Built by Cooper's father in 1797-99; improved by Cooper in 1834; destroyed by lire 
in 1S53; the grounds now a village park.) 





























WILLIAM COOPER 


the deep streams, and to make, in the cheapest manner, 
such roads as suited our then humble purposes. 

Of the famine which arose in 1789, and which 
Judge Cooper relieved, the following account is 
given: 

In the Winter preceding the Summer of 1789, grain 
rose in Albany to a price before unknown. The demand 
swept all the granaries of the Mohawk country. The 
number of beginners who depended upon it for their bread 
greatly aggravated the evil, and a famine ensued which will 
never be forgotten by those who, though now in the enjoy¬ 
ment of ease and comfort, were then afflicted with the 
crudest of wants. 

In the month of April, I arrived among them with several 
loads of provisions, destined for my own use and that of the 
laborers I had brought with me for certain necessary opera¬ 
tions; but in a few days all was gone, and there remained 
not one pound of salt meat, nor a single biscuit. Many 
were reduced to such distress as to live upon the root of 
wild leeks; some more fortunate lived upon milk, whilst 
others supported nature by drinking a syrup made of maple 
sugar and water. The quantity of leeks they eat had such 
an effect upon their breath that they could be smelled at 
many paces distant, and when they came together it was 
like cattle that had been pastured in a garlic field. A man 
of the name of Beets mistaking some poisonous herb for a 
leek, eat it, and died in consequence. Judge of my feelings 
at this epoch, with 200 families about me and not a morsel 
of bread. 

A singular event seemed sent by a good Providence to 
our relief; it was reported to me that unusual shoals of fish 
were seen moving in the clear waters of the Susquehanna. 
I went, and was surprised to find that they were herrings. 
We made something like a small net, by the interweaving 
of twigs, and by this rude and simple contrivance we were 
able to take them in thousands. In less than ten days each 

3 6 3 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


family had an ample supply, with plenty of salt. I also 
obtained from the Legislature, then in session, 1,700 
bushels of corn. This we packed on horses’ backs, and 
on our arrival made a distribution among the families, in 
proportion to the number of individuals of which each was 
composed. 


364 


V 


Jacob Morris 
and 

Talleyrand’s Visit 

1787-1795 

A FRIEND and associate of William Cooper 
was General Jacob Morris, an early pioneer 
on the Butternut Creek. He had been an 
officer in the Revolution, on the staff of the disgraced 
General Charles Lee, and had served at the battle of 
Monmouth, where Lee’s ignominious retreat nearly 
lost the day. General Morris arrived by way of Ot¬ 
sego Lake in 17 87, and on the way fell in with com¬ 
missioners, going out to run the line between New 
York and Pennsylvania. In a published letter he 
says that, at a place twenty miles down the Susque¬ 
hanna, he met one of the Cullys whom he had en¬ 
gaged to visit the Butternut Creek, and report on his 
lands. Here General Morris, for eight gallons of 
rum, purchased a bateau, and on June 14th arrived 
with his goods at the mouth of the Unadilla River. 
The next day he “ proceeded up the Unadilla about 
eight miles and camped up the Butternut Creek 
about two miles that evening, being the first white 
man that ever attempted its navigation.” General 
Morris is, of course, in error here, the valley of the 
Butternut Creek having been settled before the 
Revolution. His statement gives interesting evi- 

36s 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


dence of the oblivion and desolation which the 
Border Wars had spread over the early settlements 
on the head waters of the Susquehanna. 

General Morris thought the creek a beautiful 
stream. “ I do solemnly declare,” he said, “ it is 
the handsomest navigable creek I ever laid my eyes 
upon.” He decided to build a frame house, instead 
of a log one, as it would cost very little more, and a 
log-house was “ eternally out of repair, sinking 
upon the door and window frames and always a 
dirty house.” One of the first frame structures 
in the town must have been this house of General 
Morris, which a few years ago was still standing. 
He settled at the north end of the patent granted 
to his father, Lewis, and his uncle, Richard, to in¬ 
demnify them for property destroyed by the British. 
This property was on the estate of Morrisania, now 
a part of New York City, in the Borough of the 
Bronx. Originally the Morris patent, as already 
seen, had been granted to Lewis Morris’s brother, 
Staats Long Morris, but he was now a British officer 
and the State was appealed to in 1785 for a new 
grant to other members of the family. 

Lewis Morris had been one of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence. At the time of the 
signing, a large British force had landed within a 
few miles of Morrisania, and a short distance away 
ships of war were anchored. More than a thousand 
acres of fine wood land are said to have been ruth¬ 
lessly burned. His dwelling was attacked and 
injured, the family were driven out, the stock was 
seized, and tenants and servants were sent away. 
From that time until the evacuation of New York 
by the British, the family of Lewis Morris suffered 
many hardships from loss of property and the ruin 

366 


JACOB MORRIS 

of their home, and this tract of forest land, known 
as the Morris patent, was given as compensation for 
their loss. 

Jacob Morris was born in Morrisania in 1755. 
He therefore made his way to the Unadilla River, 
when thirty-three years old. His father had intend¬ 
ed him for a merchant, but on the outbreak of the 
war he offered his services to the American cause, 
and became an aide-de-camp to General Charles Lee. 
With Lee he went south, and is said to have served 
with credit at Fort Moultrie and elsewhere before 
the disastrous defeat at Monmouth. He was at 
one time attached to the staff of General Nathaniel 
Greene. When peace ensued, he returned to New 
York City, and was elected to the Legislature, serv¬ 
ing as Senator and Assemblyman. When he came 
down the Susquehanna, nearly sixty years of life were 
before him, during which he was to become one of 
the leading men in Otsego County. 

Some of his activities were absorbed in what are 
known as “ the political wars of Otsego Co.” Gen¬ 
eral Morris and Judge Cooper were the Federalist 
leaders and Jedediah Peck the Democratic leader. 
Peck is described by Beardsley as an indomitable 
Democrat, a preacher as well as a man of affairs, illit¬ 
erate, but shrewd and wary. As a judge, however, 
his conduct was exemplary and honorable. 

Wide interest for a time was taken in these “ wars.” 
They grew out of the election for governor in 1792. 
John Jay, although chosen on the face of the returns, 
was, by the action of the canvassers for Otsego and 
two other counties, declared defeated, and George 
Clinton took office in his place. Rufus King and 
Aaron Burr, the United States senators from New 
York, gave opposite opinions of the legal points in- 

367 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


volved. Alexander Hamilton corresponded with 
King in regard to the dispute, counselling peaceful 
submission. 

Mrs. Jay in writing a letter to her husband at the 
time, referred to the canvassers as having “ taken 
upon them to give the people a governor of their 
election, not the one the people preferred,” and 
added “ people are running in continually, to vent 
their vexation. Poor Jacob Morris looks quite dis¬ 
consolate.” Jay himself viewed the matter with 
philosophy and patriotism. “In a few years,” he 
wrote to his wife, “ we shall all be laid in the dust 
and then it will be of more importance to me to have 
governed myself than to have governed the state.” 

Contemporary with Morris as a pioneer, or nearly 
so, was Abijah Gilbert, who settled at Gilbertsville. 
He kept the first hotel. William Musson opened 
the first shoe store, and Abijah Gilbert and Joseph 
Shaw, built the first grist mill. Mr. Gilbert came 
from Warwickshire, England, that beautiful land in 
which lies the famed village of Stratford, where 300 
years before a writer of immortal works first opened 
his eyes. 

Many pioneers on the Susquehanna might have 
seen riding on horseback, in the late summer of 
1795, a Dutch gentleman and two Frenchmen. One 
of the Frenchmen had recently arrived from Eng¬ 
land, and was best known as a former bishop of 
Autun—the gentleman whom Carlyle described as 
“ his irreverent reverence of Autun,” and now bet¬ 
ter known as Talleyrand. The other was named 
Beaumetz. Talleyrand had left France as one of 
that large body of emigres whom the Reign of Ter¬ 
ror forced out of their native land. 

On going to England, he had been expelled 
368 


TALLEYRAND’S VISIT 


from the country, and while waiting for his ship at 
Falmouth had chanced to meet another famous exile 
named Benedict Arnold, who was then under sen¬ 
tence of death. Talleyrand on hearing that Arnold 
was an American, though ignorant of his name, 
asked him for letters ol introduction in America. 
Arnold replied : “ I am perhaps the only American 
who cannot give you letters for his own country. 
All the relations I had there are broken off. I must 
never return to the United States.” Talleyrand, 
who reports this reply, adds that Arnold “ dared not 
tell me his name.” 

Some thirty months were spent by Talleyrand in 
this country, the winter being passed in New York 
and Philadelphia, “ without any other aim,” he 
wrote, “ than that of being away from either France 
or England, and impelled by the sole interest of see¬ 
ing with my own eyes the great American nation 
whose history is only beginning.” The summers he 
spent in travel through the interiors of New York, 
Connecticut, and other States, visiting among other 
places the upper Susquehanna Valley on horseback. 

Samuel Breck, who met Talleyrand in New York 
before he and Beaumetz set out on their journey, 
says Talleyrand had a rifleman’s suit made for the 
occasion, and remarks the “ pride and delight ” with 
which the ex-Bishop of Autun displayed it. Several 
days and perhaps a week are believed by Wilkinson 
to have been spent where now stands Binghamton. 
A visit was also made to some Frenchmen who had 
settled in Greene. Talleyrand spent a few days at 
Cooperstown as the guest of Judge Cooper, and an 
acrostic on the Judge’s daughter, printed in the Ot¬ 
sego Herald for October a, 1795, is ascribed to him. 

Talleyrand’s Susquehanna visit seems to have been 

369 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


a direct outcome of his acquaintance with Gouver- 
neur Morris, an uncle of Jacob Morris, whom he 
had known intimately in Paris, where Morris was for 
a time a conspicuous political figure. It was also at 
Gouverneur Morris’s suggestion that three French 
princes in those years visited this country, receiving 
in their temporary distress advances of money from 
him for their expenses. They went to the Gene¬ 
see country, where Morris was interested in land. 
One of them was that Duke of Orleans who after¬ 
ward rose to be King of France, under the name 
of Louis Philippe. Returning from the Genesee 
country they went down the Susquehanna from 
Tioga Point in a bateau to Harrisburgh. The full 
story of their inland tour has never yet been told, 
even in French, else we should know whether they 
also came into Otsego County for the purpose of 
seeing the nephew of their benefactor. That Tal¬ 
leyrand visited General Morris is next door to a 
certainty, for he went to Cooperstown. Talleyrand, 
as well as the French princes, may have had financial 
aid from Gouverneur Morris. 

During his journey Talleyrand says his mind was 
“ neither free nor active enough to induce me to 
write a book.” But we have in his memoirs several 
interesting passages that refer to his wilderness jour¬ 
ney, and among them these : 

I made up my mind to leave Philadelphia, and therefore 
proposed to M. de Beaumetz * and to a Dutch gentleman 
of the name of Heydecoper to travel inland with me. They 
both accepted, and I must confess that I was pleased with 
the undertaking from the beginning. I was struck with 

* Beaumetz had been a member of the States General at the outbreak 
of the French Revolution, but he emigrated in 1792. He finally died 
in India. 


370 


TALLEYRAND’S VISIT 


astonishment ; at less than 154 miles’ distance from the 
capital, all trace of men’s presence disappeared ; Nature, in 
all her primeval vigor, confronted us ; forests old as the 
world itself; decayed plants and trees covering the very 
ground where they once grew in luxuriance ; others shoot¬ 
ing forth from under the debris of the former, and like them 
destined to decay and rot; thick and intricate bushes that 
often barred our progress; green and luxuriant grass deck¬ 
ing the banks of rivers ; large, natural meadows; strange 
and delicate flowers quite new to me ; and here and there 
the traces of former tornadoes that had carried everything 
before them. Enormous trees all mowed down in the same 
direction, extending for a considerable distance, bear wit¬ 
ness to the wonderful force of these phenomena. 

On reaching higher ground, our eyes wandered as far as 
the sight could range over a most varied and pleasant pict¬ 
ure. The tops of trees and the undulations of the ground, 
which alone interfere with the uniform aspect of large ex¬ 
tents of country, produce a peculiar effect. In the face of 
these immense solitudes, we gave free bent to our imagina¬ 
tions ; our minds built cities, villages and hamlets ; the 
mountain forests were to remain untouched; the slopes of 
the hills to be covered with luxuriant crops, and we could 
almost fancy we saw numerous herds of cattle grazing in 
the valley under our eyes. There is an inexpressible charm 
in thinking of the future when travelling in such countries. 

To be riding through a large wild forest, to lose one’s 
way in it in the middle of the night, and to call to one’s 
companion in order to ascertain that you are not missing 
each other; all this gives impressions impossible to define, 
because each incident reflects comically on the others. 

1 When I cried, w So-and-so, are you here ? ” and my com¬ 
panion replied, “ Unfortunately I am, My Lord,” I could not 
help laughing at our position. That “ unfortunately I am ” 

1 so pitifully uttered, and that u My Lord ” in allusion to the 
Autun bishopric, sounded most ludicrous. 

Talleyrand returned to Europe early in 1797. 
Affairs in France were then to undergo the historic 

37 1 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


change ushered in by young Napoleon Bonaparte’s 
“whiff of grapeshot.” Talleyrand at once threw 
himself into that flood tide by which men were led 
on to great fortunes, and eventually won for himself 
wide celebrity as the chief adviser of Napoleon and 
the first diplomatist in Europe. 


37 2 


VI 


Churches Father Nash 
and Others Founded 

1795-1809 

A FTER the Revolution, missionaries speedily 
followed the pioneers, but the actual organi¬ 
zation of churches—except that Cherry Val¬ 
ley still maintained the church founded with the 
settlement of the place—did not begin until the cen¬ 
tury had nearly closed. Early on the list were the 
Baptist church in Morris, organized in August 
1793, and the Baptist church in Franklin, over 
which the Rev. Mr. Bacon was presiding in 1799. 
Soon afterward a Presbyterian church was established 
in Sidney. The faiths which Englishmen know as 
Nonconformist naturally were the first to start re¬ 
ligious societies among frontier settlements, founded 
mainly by New England and Scotch-Irish folks. 

At Cooperstown, the Presbyterians and Congrega- 
tionalists founded a society in 1798, and in 1800 
had secured a regular pastor; but as early as 1795 
what was called The First Religious Society of the 
Town of Otsego was formed, with Elisha Moseley 
as minister for six months, and out of this is be¬ 
lieved to have grown the society of 1798. To 
about the same period belongs the organization of 
the Presbyterian church of Oneonta, of which the 
first pastor was the Rev. Alexander Conkey. In 
the village of Morris a Presbyterian church was 
organized as “ The first Presbyterian Church of 

373 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Unadilla,” Morris as well as several other towns in 
Otsego County being then a part of the town of 
Unadilla. 

Some time before 1796, an Episcopal minister, 
Daniel Burhans, D.D., had made a tour of the valley 
and visited various remote settlements. At Morris, 
in 1793, had been organized an Episcopal church, 
and in this work Dr. Burhans probably had some 
share. Dr. Burhans was a native of Connecticut, 
and had spent his youth in New Milford, one of the 
few Connecticut towns where Episcopalianism, after 
trial enough, had secured a foothold. Becoming a 
teacher, he had settled in New Lebanon, Columbia 
County, N. Y., not far from Catskill. Dr. Burhans 
before 1796 had made a tour of the upper Susque¬ 
hanna, returning with a conviction that a promising 
field existed for active missionary work by the Epis¬ 
copal Church. 

He finally prevailed on the principal of the 
academy at New Lebanon, Daniel Nash, to prepare 
for orders and proceed into the country to continue 
the work. A native of Great Barrington, Mass., 
Daniel Nash had been graduated from Yale College 
in 1785, and for the next ten years had been prin¬ 
cipal of academies in New York and New Jersey. 
He had been reared a Congregationalist, but in 
1797, after two years of preparation, was ordained 
an Episcopal deacon in St. George’s Chapel in New 
York, by Bishop Provost, the first Bishop of New 
York, and a priest in 1801, by Bishop Moore. 
From 1797 until his death. Father Nash labored 
with great zeal as a missionary and acquired the offi¬ 
cial title of Rector of the Churches in Otsego County. 

The supreme testimony to Father Nash’s devo¬ 
tion and practical talents for church building, seems 

374 


FATHER NASH 


to lie in the fact that he was able on such territory 
to succeed at all. Before his arrival, as we have 
seen, the upper Susquehanna settlements had been 
dominated by the faith of Calvin, not only since the 
Revolution, but before it. Indeed one cannot find 
anywhere a trace of Episcopal influence in the valley 
before he and Dr. Burhans began their work. Such 
influence prevailed along the Mohawk, but never 
on the Susquehanna. Outside of the Scotch-Irish, 
nine-tenths of the pioneers from 1784 until 1810 
were from New England, and mainly from Connec¬ 
ticut, the home of Congregationalism. Nothing is 
more remarkable about them than the fidelity with 
which, on the new soil, they preserved the habits, 
customs, and faith of their older home. 

Father Nash came into the valley with his wife 
for companion in his work, and this she remained 
through all his labors. They lived in rude cabins 
of unhewn logs, having scarcely a pane of glass at 
the windows and only a single room. In 1797 
Philander Chase, who was afterward a bishop, made 
him a visit while on a tour of missionary observation 
in Central New York. Chase had succeeded Robert 
G. Wetmore, who had already labored along the 
headwaters of the Delaware and Unadilla rivers, and 
from ill-health had been forced to retire. Bishop 
Chase says he helped Father Nash “carry his little 
articles of crockery, holding one handle of the basket, 
and Mr. Nash the other, and as they walked the 
road, talked of the things pertaining to the kingdom 
of God.” Even the log-cabin he lived in, was not 
his own. “ Nor was he permitted,” says Chase, 
“ to live in one for a long time together.” When 
it became necessary to change his residence, “ he 
had not the means to move substances from one 

375 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


cabin to another, except with his own hands, assisted 
only by his wife and his small children, and a passing 
missionary.” The doors of the cabin had wooden 
hinges, creaking as they were turned. While the 
children built the fire, Mrs. Nash prepared the food 
for the bishop and the family. Of his wife’s share 
in his religious work, Father Nash himself has 
written : 

Often she gave me a child and then got on the horse 
behind me with another in her arms, and thus we would go to 
public worship fora number of miles. She excelled in music 
and I understood it all. When the congregations did not 
well understand how to make the responses she always did' 
it in a solemn manner. 

A house in which Father Nash often conducted 
services was that of Percefer Carr, in Edmeston, 
the pre-Revolutionary settler and friend of Brant, 
who had been driven from his home by the Oneida 
Indians, and afterward had returned to it. Father 
Nash’s labors in Otsego County lacked but one year 
of embracing a period of forty years. As late as 
1835 preached in Butternuts, Richfield, and New 
Lisbon. In Judge Cooper he had a valuable friend. 
Fenimore Cooper knew him well, and has given an 
instructive picture of his life and times in the “ Pio¬ 
neers,” where he appears as the Rev. Mr. Grant. 

Many churches in Otsego County were the di¬ 
rect outcome of Father Nash’s influence, and among 
these was St. Matthew’s church of Unadilla. Ex¬ 
cept for him the latter church must have been a 
Presbyterian organization. The settlers in Unadilla, 
with scarcely an exception, were from Connecticut 
and Massachusetts. Many had already contributed 
liberally to the support of a Calvinistic church in 

376 


FATHER NASH 


Sidney, among them men who were afterward asso¬ 
ciated with the founding of St. Matthew’s. 

This church was founded, not so much in the 
interest of any particular denomination, as to pro- 
mote good order in the community. In its growing 
prosperity the new settlement had been suffering 
from vigorous energy unrestrained by moral influ¬ 
ences. The ease with which licenses were obtained, 
the cheapness of whiskey, and the remoteness from 
centres of authority, had led to wild and free life, and 
the order-loving men from Connecticut had become 
eager to set up an influence which should check the 
growth of disorder. What, in other places, and 
notably in Meredith, took the form of a ringing 
protest from a “law and order committee,” in Una- 
dilla took the form of a church founded in 1809. 

Similar conditions in other communities may have 
aided him in his work, but his own personality, his 
pious zeal, his apostolic sincerity and simplicity, were 
the main factors in his extraordinary success. Dr. 
Burhans once said that Father Nash had done 
more to establish and extend the Episcopal Church 
“ than any other clergyman ever did in the United 
States ”—surely an exalted tribute to a man labor¬ 
ing in such conditions. Father Nash spent the re¬ 
mainder of his life in Otsego County, dying in 
Burlington at the home of his son-in-law in 1836. 
With his wife, he was buried some years later in the 
churchyard of Christ Church, in Cooperstown, be¬ 
neath the shade of a noble pine-tree—a place he had 
himself chosen for the purpose. His grave, with 
that of his wife, remains a familiar spot in that burial 
ground. It is marked by an obelisk of marble, on 
which appears the name “ Father Nash,” the name 
Daniel being omitted. Under Father Nash, Christ 

377 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Church was organized in 1811. Within its grounds, 
and not far from Father Nash, also lies buried Feni- 
more Cooper.* 

Father Nash’s memory has been deservedly hon¬ 
ored in the shire town of Otsego. No Otsego pioneer 
deserves honor more—not the road builder or the 
leveller of forests, not the men who fought against 
Brant and the Tories, not William Cooper, with his 
vast land enterprises. To none of these, in so large 
a degree can we apply with such full measure of 
truth, the sayings that no man liveth unto himself, 
and that his works do follow him. The labors of 
Father Nash recall nothing so forcibly as the labors 
of the French Jesuits among the Iroquois in the 
seventeenth century. Apostolic is the word for his 
simplicity, as well as theirs, his heroic devotion, his 
complete self-abnegation. 

* The same enclosure contains the grave of a man who, twenty-five 
years ago, was prominent in the newspaper world of New York City— 
Ivory Chamberlin. 


378 


VII 


A Great Highway 

1769-I802 

B EFORE the war something of a road had 
been cut through the woods from Otsego 
Lake southward along the Susquehanna, and 
other primitive roads led to and from the lake; but 
these highways had almost disappeared during the 
later years of the war, when Nature had done her 
effective work of reclamation. The one leading 
from the lake southward was improved in 1786 as 
far as Hartwick, and others were speedily taken in 
hand. Further down the river efforts were made to 
establish convenient communication with the Hud¬ 
son, and out of this grew a road which eventually 
became the great highway for a large territory. It 
was called the Catskill Turnpike, and had its termi¬ 
nus on the Susquehanna at Wattles’s Ferry. 

This road, as a turnpike, properly dates from 1802, 
but the road itself is much older. Its eastern end 
had been opened long before the Revolution with a 
terminus in the Charlotte Valley. It seems then to 
have been hardly more than a narrow clearing through 
the forest, what farmers call a“ wood road,” or fron¬ 
tiersmen a “ tote road.” It served as a convenient 
route to the Susquehanna, because much shorter 
than the older route by the Mohawk Valley. Over 
this road on horseback in 1769, as we have seen, 
came Colonel Staats Long Morris and his wife, the 
Duchess of Gordon. 

After the war demands rose for a better road, and 

379 





THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


one was soon undertaken with its terminus at Wat¬ 
tles’s Ferry. This terminus appears to have been 
chosen because the river here was deep enough to 
permit the use of“battoes” during the low water 
that prevailed in summer. By the summer of 1788 
the road was in passable condition. Alexander Har¬ 
per and Edward Paine in February, 1789, declared 
that they had been to “ a very great expense in 
opening the roads from Catskill and the Hudson to 
the Susquehanna River.” In the same year a peti¬ 
tion was filed for a road “ from the Ouleout to Can- 
nadessagos ” (the old Indian town near Geneva); 
and another in the same year in behalf of a proposed 
road, obviously the same, “ from the Ouleout to 
Kyuga Lake.” The road to Cayuga Lake (Ithaca) 
made slow progress, and in 1791 General Jacob 
Morris addressed to Governor Clinton a letter which 
shows that it was then still to be undertaken. Early 
in 1790 the State had taken the road to Catskill in 
charge. In August G. Gelston made up from sur¬ 
veys a map from Catskill “ running westerly to the 
junction of the Ouleout Creek with the Susquehan¬ 
na River.” The country had been previously ex¬ 
plored for the purpose by James Barker and David 
Laurence.* 

In 1791 Sluman Wattles charged his cousin, 
Nathaniel Wattles, £ 4, 6 s. for “ carting three bar- 
rells from your house to Catskill,” JC 1 for “five 
days work on the road,” and 15 shillings for “in¬ 
specting road.” Besides Nathaniel Wattles, Menad 
Hunt was interested in the work, and in 1792 the 
two men appealed to the State to be reimbursed for 
money paid out above the contract price.*}* During 
this year the father of the late Dr. Samuel H. Case, 

* State Land Papers. t Sluman Wattles’s Account Book. 

38° 


A GREAT HIGHWAY 


of Oneonta, emigrated to the upper Ouleout from 
Colchester, Conn., with his seven brothers. They 
drove cattle and sheep ahead of them, and consumed 
eight days in making the journey from the Hudson 
River. Solomon Martin went over the road in the 
same year, using Sluman Wattles’s oxen, for which 
he was charged jfi, 17 s. He went to Catskill, and 
was gone fifteen days. This road was only twenty- 
five feet wide. In 1792 a regular weekly mail-route 
was established over it. 

These are among the many roads which were 
opened in the neighborhood before the century 
closed—before the Catskill Turnpike, as a turnpike, 
came into existence. Nearly every part of the town 
of Unadilla, then embracing one-third of Otsego 
County, had been made accessible before the year 
1800. The pioneers had taken up lands all through 
the hill country. But the needs of the settlers had 
not been fully met. All over the State prevailed 
similar conditions. The demands that poured in 
upon State and town authorities for road improve¬ 
ments became far in excess of what could be satis¬ 
fied. Everywhere fertile lands had been cleared 
and sown to grain, but the crops were so enormous 
that they could neither be consumed at home nor 
transported to market elsewhere. Professor McMas- 
ter says that “ the heaviest taxes that could have 
been laid would not have sufficed to cut out half the 
roads or build half the bridges ” that commerce 
required. 

Out of this condition grew the policy of granting 
charters to turnpike companies, formed by well-to-do 
land-owners, who undertook to build roads and 
maintain them in proper condition for the privilege 
of imposing tolls. Men owning land and possessed 

38i 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


of ready money, were everywhere eager to invest in 
these enterprises. They not only saw the promise 
of dividends, but ready sales for their lands. At 
one time an amount of capital almost equal to the 
domestic debt of the nation when the Revolution 
closed was thus employed throughout the country. 
By the year 1811, no fewer than 137 roads had 
been chartered in New York State alone, with a total 
length of 4,500 miles and a total capital of $7,500,- 
000. About one-third of this mileage was eventually 
completed. 

Eight turnpikes went out from Albany, and five 
others joined Catskill, Kingston, and Newburg with 
the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers. The earliest 
of these five, and one of the earliest in the State, was 
the Catskill and Susquehanna turnpike, that sup¬ 
planted the primitive State road to Wattles’s Ferry. 
The old course was changed in several localities, the 
charter permitting the stockholders to choose their 
route. Among the names in the charter were John 
Livingston, Caleb Benton (a brother of Stephen 
Benton), John Kortright, Sluman Wattles, and Solo¬ 
mon Martin. The stock was limited to $12,000 in 
shares of $20 each. 

The road ran through lands owned by the stock¬ 
holders. Little regard was had for grades, as travel¬ 
lers well know. The main purpose was to make the 
land accessible and marketable. The road was com¬ 
pleted in 1802, and soon became a famous highway 
to Central New York, and the navigable Susque¬ 
hanna, and so remained for more than a quarter of 
a century. It was in operation four years earlier 
than the Great Western Turnpike, connecting 
Albany with Buffalo and running through Cherry 
Valley. Spafford in 1813 described it as “the 

382 


A GREAT HIGHWAY 


Appian Way turnpike,” in which is seen the pride 
felt in it, likened as it thus was to one of the best 
roads ever built by man—that Roman highway which 
still does service after the lapse of more than a,ooo 
years. In one sense this turnpike was like a Roman 
road : it followed straight lines from point to point 
regardless of hills, obstacles being squarely faced 
and defied by these modern men as by the old 
Romans. 

Ten toll-gates were set up along the line, with the 
rates as follows : for twenty sheep and hogs, eight 
cents; for twenty horses and cattle, twenty cents; 
for a horse and rider, five cents; for a horse and 
chaise, twelve and one-half cents; for a coach or 
chariot, twenty-five cents; for a stage or wagon, 
twelve and one-half cents. In 1804, Caleb Benton, 
who lived in Catskill, was president of the corpora¬ 
tion, and in 1805 the stage business of the road was 
granted as a monopoly to David Bostwick, Stephen 
Benton, Lemuel Hotchkiss, and Terence Donnelly. 
Two stages were to be kept regularly on the road, 
the fare to be five cents per mile. A stage that 
left Catskill Wednesday morning reached Unadilla 
Friday night, and one that left Unadilla Sunday 
reached Catskill Tuesday. The most prosperous 
period for the road was the ten years from 18:20 to 

i 8 3 °. 

Two years after the road was built, Dr. Timothy 
Dwight, President of Yale College, during one of 
his regular vacation journeys, passed over it and 
stopped at Unadilla. He has left a full record of 
the journey. Dr. Dwight, accustomed long to the 
comforts of life in New England, had no sooner 
crossed the State line from Massachusetts to New 
York than he observed a change. The houses be- 

383 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


came ordinary and ill repaired, and very many of 
them were taverns of wretched appearance. 

For sixteen or eighteen miles, he saw neither 
church nor school-house. Catskill contained about 
ioo houses, and much of the business was done by 
barter. The turnpike to the Susquehanna he de¬ 
scribed as a “ branch of the Greenwood turnpike 
from Hartford to Albany, commencing from Canaan 
in Connecticut and passing to Wattles’s Ferry on 
the Susquehanna. Thence it is proposed to ex¬ 
tend it to the county of Trumbull on the southern 
shore of Lake Erie.” The road he thought “ well 
made.” 

Connecticut families were found settled along the 
line. Now he came upon “a few lonely plantations 
recently begun upon the road,” and then “ occasion¬ 
ally passed a cottage, and heard the distant sound of 
an axe and of a human voice. All else was grandeur, 
gloom and solitude.” At last after many miles of 
riding he reached a settlement “ for some miles a 
thinly built village, composed of neat, tidy houses,” 
in which everything “ indicated prosperity.” This 
was Franklin. Coming down the Ouleout, the coun¬ 
try, he said, “ wore a forbidding aspect, the houses 
being thinly scattered and many of them denoted 
great poverty.” 

When Dr. Dwight reached Wattles’s Ferry, the 
more serious trials of his journey began. All the 
privations of life in a new country which he had met 
on the road from Catskill at last had overtaxed his 
patience, and he poured forth his perturbed spirit 
upon this infant settlement. When he made a sec¬ 
ond visit a few years later he liked the place much 
better. His first impressions are chronicled at some 
length. He says: 


3 8 4 


A GREAT HIGHWAY 


When we arrived at the Susquehanna we found the only 
inn-keeper, at the Eastern side of the river, unable to fur¬ 
nish us a dinner. To obtain this indispensable article we 
were obliged therefore to cross the river. The ferry-boat 
was gone. The inhabitants had been some time employed 
in building a bridge, but it was unfinished and impassable. 
There was nothing left us, therefore, but to cross a deep and 
rapid ford. Happily the bottom was free from rocks and 
stones. 

Dr. Dwight appears to have found no satisfactory 
stopping-place in Unadilla, and proceeds to say: 

About four miles from the ferry we came to an inn kept 
by a Scotchman named Hanna. Within this distance we 
called at several others, none of which could furnish us a 
dinner. I call them inns because this name is given them 
by the laws of the State, and because each of them hangs 
out a sign challenging this title. But the law has nick¬ 
named them, and the signs are liars. 

It is said, and I suppose truly, that in this State any man 
who will pay for an inn-keeper’s license obtains one of course. 
In consequence of this practice the number of houses which 
bear the appellation is already enormous. Too many of 
them are mere dramshops of no other use than to deceive, 
disappoint and vex travellers and to spread little circles of 
drunkenness throughout the State. A traveller after passing 
from inn to inn in a tedious succession finds that he can 
get nothing for his horse and nothing for himself. 

The remedy he prescribed for this was to license 
“ only one inn where there are five or six.” The 
evil was general. In 1810 the people of Meredith 
made a formal and vigorous protest against the growth 
of intemperance and crime as caused by public 
houses. There were ten hotels in that town alone, 
besides a number of distilleries. Many citizens 
banded themselves in behalf of order and decency, 

385 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


and their protest abounded in an energy of language 
that would have delighted the soul of Dr. Dwight. 
Of his further experience at Mr. Hanna’s hotel, he 
says: 

We at length procured a dinner and finding no house at a 
proper distance where we could be lodged concluded to stay 
where we were. Our fare was indeed bad enough, but we 
were sheltered from the weather. Our inn-keeper besides 
furnishing us with such other accommodations as his home 
afforded, added to it the pleasures of his company and 
plainly considered himself as doing us no small favor. In 
that peculiar situation in which the tongue vibrates with its 
utmost ease and celerity, he repeated to us a series of anec¬ 
dotes dull and vulgar in the extreme. Yet they all con¬ 
tained a seasoning which was exquisite, for himself was in 
every case the hero of the tale. To add to our amusement, 
he called for the poems of Allan Ramsay and read several of 
them to us in what he declared to be the true Scottish pro¬ 
nunciation, laughing incessantly and with great self-compla¬ 
cency as he proceeded. 

Dr. Dwight remarks that “ a new turnpike road 
is begun from the ferry and intended to join the 
Great Western road either at Cayuga bridge or 
Canandaigua. This route will furnish a nearer 
journey to Niagara than that which is used at pres¬ 
ent.” We see from this what were the plans of 
that day, as to the future central highway of New 
York State. Of Unadilla Dr. Dwight says: 

That township in which we now were is named Unadilla 
and lies in the county of Otsego. It is composed of rough 
hills and valleys with a handsome collection of intervales 
along the Susquehanna. On a remarkably ragged eminence 
immediately north-west of the river, we saw the first oaks 
and chestnuts after leaving the neighborhood of Catskill. 
The intervening forests were beach, maple, etc. The 

386 


A GREAT HIGHWAY 


houses in Unadilla were scattered along the road which 
runs parallel with the river. The settlement is new and 
appears like most others of a similar date. Rafts contain¬ 
ing each from twenty to twenty-five thousand feet of boards 
are from this township floated down the Susquehanna to 
Baltimore. Unadilla contained in 1800 eight hundred and 
twenty-three inhabitants. 

On September 27, 1804, Dr. Dwight left Mr. 
Hanna’s inn and rode through to Oxford. The 
first two miles of the way along the Susquehanna 
were “ tolerably good and with a little labor capable 
of being excellent.” He continues : 

We then crossed the Unadilla, a river somewhat smaller 
but considerable longer (sic) than the Susquehanna proper, 
quite as deep and as difficult to be forded. Our course to 
this river was south-west. We then turned directly north 
along the banks of the Unadilla, and travelling over a 
rugged hill, passed through a noble cluster of white pines, 
some of which though not more than three feet in diameter, 
were, as I judged, not less than 200 feet in height. No 
object in the vegetable world can be compared with this. 

Eleven years later, Dr. Dwight again passed over 
the turnpike on his way to Utica. “ The road from 
Catskill to Oxford,” he said, “ I find generally bad, 
as having been long neglected. The first twenty 
miles were tolerable, the last twenty absolutely 
intolerable.” After noting that in Franklin “relig¬ 
ion had extensively prevailed,” he wrote : 

Unadilla is becoming a very pretty village. It is built 
on a delightful ground along the Susquehanna and the 
number of houses, particularly of good ones, has much in¬ 
creased. A part of the country between this and Oxford 
is cultivated ; a considerable part of it is still a wilderness. 
The country is rough and of a high elevation. 

3 8 7 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


In some reminiscenses which my father wrote in 
1890, he described the scenes along this road that 
were familiar to him in boyhood at Kortright—1825 
to 1835. The road was then in its most prosper¬ 
ous period. It was not uncommon for one of the 
hotels, which marked every few miles of the route, 
to entertain thirty or forty guests at a time. The 
freight wagons were huge in size, drawn by six and 
eight horses, and had wheels with wide tires. Stages 
drawn by four and six horses were continually in use. 
Not infrequently came families bound for Ohio, 
where they expected to settle—some of these Con¬ 
necticut people, who helped to plant the Western 
Reserve settlements. This vast traffic brought easy 
prosperity to the people along the turnpike and 
built up towns and villages. My father records the 
success of the Rev. Mr. McAuley’s church at Kort¬ 
right—a place that has now retrograded so that it is 
only a small hamlet, just capable of retaining a post- 
office. But Mr. McAuley’s church at one time, 
more than sixty years ago, had 500 members, and 
was said to be the largest church society west of the 
Hudson valley. 

A change occurred with the digging of the Erie 
Canal and the building of the Erie Railway. More¬ 
over, in 1834 was built a turnpike from North 
Kortright through the Charlotte Valley to Oneonta. 
The white man having tried a route of his own over 
the hills, reverted to the route which the red man 
had marked out for him ages before. Much easier 
was the grade by this river road, and this fact exer¬ 
cised a marked influence on the fortunes of the set¬ 
tlements along the olden line. Freight wagons were 
drawn off and sent by the easier way. Stages fol¬ 
lowed the new turnpike and the country between 

388 


A GREAT HIGHWAY 


Wattles’s Ferry and Kortright retrograded as rapidly 
as it had formerly improved.* 

The building of the Catskill Turnpike really led 
to the founding of Unadilla village on its present 
site. It had confined to this point a growth which 
otherwise would probably have been distributed 
among other points along the valley. Here was a 
stopping-place, with a river to be crossed, horses to 
be changed, and new stages taken, and here had 
been established the important market for country 
produce of Noble & Hayes. Unadilla became 
what might be called a small but thriving inland 
river port. Here lumber was sawed and here it 
came from mills elsewhere for shipment along with 
farm products to Baltimore. Here grain was 
ground, and here were three prosperous distilleries. 

The building of the turnpike along the Charlotte 
was not the only blow that came to the western por¬ 
tion of the Catskill Road. Another and permanent 
one came to the whole length of the turnpike when 
the Erie Canal was built, followed later by the Erie 
Railroad. Otsego County, in 1832, had reached a 
population of 52,370, but with the Erie Canal in 
operation it ceased to grow. At the present time 
the showing is considerably less than it was in 1832, 
and yet several villages have made large increases, 
the increase in Oneonta being probably tenfold. 

Contemporary with the Erie Canal was an attempt 
to provide the Susquehanna with a canal. It became 

* A stage line, however, for long years afterward supplied these set¬ 
tlements with a means of communication with Unadilla, and it is within 
the memory of many persons still calling themselves young that for a 
considerable series of years, trips twice a week were regularly made by 
Henry S. Woodruff. After Mr. Woodruff’s death a large and interest¬ 
ing collection of coaches, sleighs, and other stage relics remained upon 
his premises—the last survivals of coaching times on the Catskill Turn¬ 
pike, embracing a period of three-quarters of a century. 

3 8 9 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


a subject of vast local interest from Cooperstown to 
the interior of Pennsylvania. The scheme included 
a railway, or some other method of reaching the 
Erie Canal from the head of Otsego Lake. Colonel 
De Witt Clinton, Jr., son of the governor, made a 
survey as far as Milford, and found that in nine miles 
there was a fall of thirty feet, and that at Unadilla 
the fall from the lake was 150 feet, while in 110 
miles from the lake it was 350 feet. In 1830 a new 
survey showed that 144 miles out of 153 were 
already navigable, the remaining nineteen requiring 
a canal. Some seventy locks would be needed and 
sixty-five dams. Judge Page, while a member of 
Congress, introduced a bill to aid slack-water naviga¬ 
tion from Cooperstown to tide-water. It was his 
opinion that the failure of the bill was due to the 
spread of railroads. 

With the ushering in of the great railroad era, the 
Susquehanna Valley saw started as early as 1830 
many railroad projects which could save it from 
threatened danger. Their aim was to connect the 
upper Susquehanna with the Hudson at Catskill, 
and the Mohawk at Canajoharie. None ever got 
beyond the charter stage. Strenuous efforts were 
afterward made to bring the Erie from the ancient 
Cookoze (Deposit) to the Susquehanna at a point 
above Oghwaga, but this also failed. 

Indeed it was not until after the Civil War that 
any railroad reached the head-waters of the Susque¬ 
hanna; but it was an agreeable sign of the enterprise 
which attended the men of 1830 and following years 
that at the period when the earliest railroad in this 
State, and one of the earliest on this continent, had 
just been built from Albany to Schenectady, serious 
projects existed for opening this valley to the outer 

390 


A GREAT HIGHWAY 


world. Even the great Erie project languished long 
in consequence of business depression. It was not 
until 1845 that it was completed as far as Middle- 
town, and not until 1851 that it reached Dunkirk. 

Not even to the Erie was final supremacy on this 
frontier assured, but the upper Susquehanna lands, 
more than those through which the Erie ran, was 
doomed to a condition of isolation. Nature itself 
had decreed that the great route of transportation in 
New York State was to run where the great trail of 
the Iroquois for centuries had run—through the 
Mohawk Valley. Along that central trail from Al¬ 
bany, “the Eastern door,” to Buffalo, “the West¬ 
ern door of the Long House,” the course of empire 
westward was to take its way. 


39i 


VIII 


Economic Facts 
in 

Pioneer Life 

E ARLY in the century the forces which deter¬ 
mined the character of the frontier villages for 
the next fifty years were well under way. 
Already had arrived the men upon whom for many 
years progress was to rest—those who built the grist 
and saw mills, the store-keepers, the lumber men, 
the builders of roads, the owners of cloth mills, the 
heads of potash industries, and those who sent the 
produce rafts down the rivers to large markets. On 
the Susquehanna for half a century existed a thriv¬ 
ing community distant nearly a hundred miles from 
Catskill with no other outlet for its products than 
the great world to which the turnpike or the river 
opened the way. 

The wealth that nature yielded comprised pork, 
bacon, lard, lumber, grain, wool, furs, and hides. To 
transport raw material to Catskill or Baltimore was a 
costly undertaking. The aim always was to send it 
in the form that involved the least expense for trans¬ 
portation, a notable example of which was seen in 
the numerous distilleries set up for the consumption 
of surplus grain. Early in the century it cost $i to 
transport a barrel of flour from Central New York 
to Philadelphia. Grain and flour carried more than 
150 miles could hardly be sold at a profit. Freight 
on an average cost about $10 a ton for each 100 

392 







ECONOMIC FACTS 


miles, or ten cents a mile per ton ; while in excep¬ 
tional cases, like the all-land route from Philadel¬ 
phia to Pittsburg, a ton cost as high as $125 for the 
500 miles, which was $25 for each 100 miles, or 
twenty-five cents for each mile per ton.* 

In all directions the best economy before the days 
of good roads, canals and railroads advised every pos¬ 
sible kind of local manufacturing, and hence came 
into existence in every community not only distil¬ 
leries and grist-mills, but fulling-mills, hat factories, 
and wagon-shops. Most interesting of all these in¬ 
dustries, perhaps, were those for producing home- 
spun cloth. Mr. Rogers has described them from 
personal recollections. He says that before 1844 
every farmer’s wife in the Susquehanna Valley saw 
that yarn for stockings and mittens, as well as flan¬ 
nel for underwear, fulled cloth and pressed flannel 
were made. Mills to card the wool into rolls, and 
also to color, full and dress the cloth, were common 
throughout the country : 

After carding, the wool was spun, a wheel and w clock 
reel ” being found in every family. Much spinning was 
done by hired labor, thirty knots of warp and stocking yarn, 
or forty of w filling,” being a day’s work. 

Mr. Rogers proceeds to say : 

After being spun the yarn was scoured and taken to the 
weaver’s. Here the warp was spooled, run off on warping 
bars, and thus warped. Then each individual thread was 
drawn through one or two “ harnesses,” and all through a 
reed, after being wound on the warping-beam. The filling 
or woof was quilled, the quill being a small paper cone of 
home construction. Both spooling and quilling were done 

*It was stated a few years ago by Chauncey M. Depew that the aver¬ 
age freight rate by railroad at that time was less than three-quarters of 
a cent per ton for each mile of distance. 

393 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


on a “ quill wheel,” and the quills were put into a shuttle 
and thrown by hand. Treadles worked by foot-power 
pulled down one harness, the reed, hung in a heavy frame, 
was beaten with one hand, and then the shuttle was thrown 
back with the other. A good many yards could be woven 
in a day. 

When the cloth was taken from the loom, it went to the 
dye shop. The colors in common use were snuff brown 
and butternut. After the dyeing process, the cloth “ was 
fulled, teasled, sheared and pressed, and then sent home to 
be made up by some woman tailor. As for a w boughten 
coat,” a boy did not get one until he got big enough to 
“ go in company ” or work out and earn one. 

Mr. Rogers adds that pressed woollen dresses had 
one great failing—their facility for catching lint and 
dust—and he tells in illustration of the fact the fol¬ 
lowing touching tale: 

Dr. Henry Mitchell, of Norwich, a very eminent physi¬ 
cian, and at one time a M.C., was called one fearfully cold 
and blustering day to see a woman, who was largely a hypo¬ 
chondriac. The doctor went into the sick-room, where the 
woman had lain down with one of these pressed dresses on. 
Her hair was unkempt, and as she raised herself to greet him, 
her dress showed the effect of contact with feathers and lint. 
She broke out, u Oh, Doctor, I look dreadfully, I know, but I 
don’t look half as bad as I feel.” To which he replied : 
“ Then, by-, you will die.” 

The prices that were paid for land, farm products, 
store goods and labor shed light on economic con¬ 
ditions. From old diaries, account-books and let¬ 
ters one can compile lists of prices and, as he turns 
the yellow pages, form conclusions as striking as 
they are interesting. Land values were of course 
very low, but they were quick to rise. As little as 
18 cents per acre was paid in Bainbridge. William 

394 



ECONOMIC FACTS 


Cooper in 1786, after a foreclosure sale, obtained 
his vast tract comprising 29,350 acres for about 50 
cents per acre. In 1789 Leonard M. Cutting pur¬ 
chased of the State 25,000 acres on the west side of 
the Unadilla River at 3 shillings and one farthing 
an acre. Other large tracts in the same region were 
sold for the same price. Eleven years after William 
Cooper acquired his tract, he sold off a farm to 
Levi Pierce for $5 per acre. A pioneer named 
Jonathan Price leased from Mr. Cooper 180 acres 
at fourteen cents annually per acre. About the 
year 1800 Ransom Hunt purchased his several 
hundred acres in Otego for $1.25 per acre. Values 
in Schoharie County were much higher. Brown says 
that as early as 1759 land laid out in lots sold at 
from $ 1.00 to $5.00. In 1786 Schoharie land was 
worth $5.00, and in 1817 from $10 to $25. 

The capital required, once a pioneer had arrived 
with his family and secured his land, was small. A 
yoke of oxen was valued after the war at about $70 ; 
a cow at $15, the farming tools absolutely required 
at $20, and an ox-cart at $30, or a total of $ 1 35. 
A log-house with two rooms in it, built by hired 
labor, cost about $ 100. One with a single room, 
twenty feet square, could be put up for much less, and 
when a man did the work himself, the cost went 
down accordingly. 

Solomon Martin in 1797, was charged $25, for 
two tons of hay, and in 1803, $ 60, for a yoke of 
oxen. Sherman Page in 1806 was charged $7.60 
for 1,010 feet of panel boards; Amos Bidwell in 
1798, two shillings, two pence for 5|- pounds of 
beef; Hugh Thompson in 1797, 2 shillings for 25 
pumpkins; Daniel Mack in 1793, 4 shillings for 
one bushel of corn, and 6 shillings for two bushels 

395 



THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


of wheat; and Daniel Bissell in 1793,14 shillings 
for 400 bricks and 16 shillings for “ four days of 
work building chimney;” Guido L. Bissell in 1805, 
$74, for 14,854 feet of boards. The cash sum of 
$24 was paid in 1802 to Sluman Bartlett for a barrel 
of whiskey and Guido L. Bissell was credited in 
1807 with $60, for a horse. 

For “drawing deeds and acknowledging them ” 
in 1797 Eliphalet Smith was to pay $1.50; for 
“making pair breeches,” Joseph Merrick in 1797 
was to pay 6 shillings, and “ for making coat,” 8 
shillings; Ephraim Little in 1798 “for making two 
caps ” 4 shillings; “ for schooling one child six 
weeks” in 1792, 3 shillings 3 pence. In 1806 
Benjamin Beech was to pay 2 shillings 6 pence 
“ for one day’s cradeling when you went to train¬ 
ing.” In 1798 for “boarding Betsey Adams on 
Mrs. Adams’s account, 6 weeks ” the charge w r as 
6 shillings. 

Solomon Martin in 1803 was charged for the use 
of a horse “at 3 pence per mile for 153 miles;” 
Amos Bidwell in 1797 for “ride of my mare 20 
miles ” 6 shillings 8 pence; Hugh Thompson in 
1797 for “the use of my sleigh to Shenango, 8 
shillings;” Ira Birdsall in 1827 for “the ride of 
the black mare up Sand Hill and gave her a bad 
sweating” 25 cents; Ephraim Little in 1798 for 
“ the use of horse and a sleigh to the Susquehanna, 
gone 3 days, 8 shillings; ” Robert Freeman in 
I 797, “ to my time, horse and expense to the Uni- 
dealy, £1 ;” Erastus Root in 1797, “ to a journey 
to Shenango on your business, finding myself, horse 
and expenses, £ 4;” an estate in 1798, “ to a jour¬ 
ney of 40 miles to the Surrogate to be qualified as 
an executor, $6 ; ” Daniel Bissell in 1797 “ to ten 

396 





ECONOMIC FACTS 


days in your business at German Flatts, finding my 
own horse to ride at $i per day, jC 4;” David 
Baits in 1797 to a journey to Albany on “account 
of being bail for you, finding my own horse and 
expense, nine days at $1 a day, $18;” Henry 
Birdsall in 1819 “to one day spent to do your 
business with Judge Sands * by your request, $1 ;” 
and Nathaniel Wattles in 1792, “to my journey to 
New York, /6.”f 

Other interesting items appear in the Unadilla 
town records. In 1809 Samuel Betts and Silas 
Scott, poor-masters, entered a credit for “ cash 
received of A. H. Beach as a fine against Francis 
West for breach of the Sabbath, 75 cents.” In 1814 
credit was entered for cash received of Uriah Han¬ 
ford, Esq., “ for fines imposed for profain swearing, 
etc., $2.25.” In 1822 a charge was made of $2.00 
for “ writing and putting up notices against drunk¬ 
ards.” Curtis Noble as town clerk in 1812, entered 
a statement that Stephen Benton “ directed me to 
enter on the records of the town that his black 
slave Gin was delivered of a male child on the 24th 
of September, 1811, which he calls William and 
delivered me a certificate of the same as the laws 
directs.” Slaves had then existed in Otsego County 
for many years. In 1801 there were forty-three of 
them. A good female slave cook was valued at 
$ 200. 

About 1820, farm hands were paid from $8 to 
$11 per month; mechanics from $12 to $1 6; 
men to work in the haying season 50 cents a day. 
Hemlock lumber was worth $3.50 per thousand; 

* Obadiah Sands, who had first settled on the Delaware at Deposit and 
afterward lived in Franklin. He was the father of the late Frederick A. 
Sands of Unadilla. 

f Judge Sluman Wattles’s account book. 

397 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


pine shingles from 75 cents to $ 1.00 per bunch; 
fire-wood, $1.00 a cord; a 3-year old steer from 
$11 to $14; butter 8 cents per pound and whiskey 
25 cents a gallon. For eggs and butter even so 
late as 1837, the only returns were “store pay,” 
and the same was true of corn, rye and oats, unless 
hauled to a distillery, as was the common practice. 
But even here, cash was not certain to be paid. 

It is obvious that these frontier communities 
became almost self-supporting. From the outer 
world the things obtained were extremely few. 
With a supply of sugar and salt, a family could 
almost have subsisted on things that the soil and their 
own ingenuity produced. The earliest traders and 
settlers who learned from the Indians how from a 
birch-tree a boat could be made in which to trans¬ 
port food and domestic chattels received a lesson in 
invention which they and many who came after 
them were to find useful all their lives. Necessity 
truly became the mother of invention when the 
hollowed-out piece of a tree, or a sap-trough was 
employed to rock one’s offspring to sleep in, or 
when a man immigrating into a new wilderness 
home, mounted on the back of an old horse, not 
only his household goods, but his wife and children. 

Men and women literally became jacks of all 
trades. A fine example of development in this line 
was Sluman Wattles, who was not only a farmer, 
but a road builder, tailor, shoemaker, lumberman, 
butcher, hatter, bricklayer, teacher, lawyer and 
county judge. Another example was Joseph 
Sleeper, farmer, Quaker preacher, surveyor, mill¬ 
wright, carpenter, stone-mason and blacksmith; and 
still another, Jedediah Peck, who was farmer, lawyer, 
millwright, preacher, politician and county judge. 

39 8 


“STILL GLIDES THE STREAM” 


A blacksmith could not only make shoes for horses, 
but to him the farmer went for hoes, pitchforks and 
rakes. Even ploughs could here be made, and a 
man could turn the sod all day with a yoke of oxen 
controlled by a harness constructed of bark from an 
elm-tree. Trees in the forest untouched by the axe 
were employed as supports for looms set up under 
the open sky. In conditions such as these were 
developed motive forces in men and women that 
have made communities strong and states powerful. 

Since that period times indeed have changed. 
Fortunate it is that men and women have changed 
also—fortunate for them and the world. A new 
and broader life, though one not quite so heroic, 
but a life with something of sweetness and refine¬ 
ment unknown to that conquering generation, has 
come in, while the old order has been rolled away as 
a scroll. Throughout this land for more than ioo 
years peace has dwelt. Gone is that warfare with 
Indians and Tories ; gone are those titanic strug¬ 
gles with nature. As the railway has superseded the 
stage-coach and freight-wagon, so did they in their 
turn supplant the u battoe ” and the ark. Some¬ 
thing of life, too, has departed—that full and 
strenuous life which to those times belonged. 

Nature alone remains unaltered. Scarcely changed 
in aspect stand these hills, more beautiful to eyes 
born among them than any others the world con¬ 
tains ; and the blue sky, the storms of winter and 
summer, the clouds that now threaten disaster, that 
now give promise of glorious day—all these remain 
as once they were. Throughout the landscape, from 
Lake Otsego down to Old Oghwaga (as throughout 
another scene, indeed, from where, for half a cen- 

399 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


tury, frowned the ramparts of Fort Stanwix to where 
the colossal Capitol keeps watch and ward), ever 
winding across that glorious panorama, ever silent, 
as great natures often are, in its potent and benefi¬ 
cent sway, 

I see what was, and is, and will abide ; 

Still glides the stream, and shall forever glide. 


400 


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Trumbull, J. H. (Editor): Memorial History of Hartford County, 
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Tuckerman, Bayard : Life of Peter Stuyvesant. i6mo. New 
York, 1893. 

Van Hovenburgh, Rudolphus: Journal of. Printed in the 
Journals of the Sullivan Expedition. Auburn, 1887. 

Vasseller, E. : Interview with Hudson Sleeper. Printed in the 
Oneonta Herald. 

Wager, David E. : Descriptive History of Oneida County. 8 vo. 
Boston History Co. 1896. 

Washington, George: Writings of. Edited by W. C. Ford. 
14 vols., 8vo. New York, 1893. 

Weiser, G. Z. : Life of John Conrad Weiser. i2mo. Reading, 
1876. 

Weld, Isaac : Travels Through the States of North America. 2 
vols., i2mo. London, 1799. 

409 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


WHEELOCK, Rev. Dr. Eleazur : Memoir of. By David Mc¬ 
Clure and Elijah Parish. Newburyport, 1811. 

Wheelock, Rev. Dr. Eleazur : Narrative of the Indian Char¬ 
ity School at Lebanon, Connecticut. With continuations. i6mo. 
Boston, 1762-1765. 

Wilkinson, J. B.: Annals of Binghamton. Binghamton, 1840. 

Williamson, -: Settlement of the Genesee Country. New 

York, 1797. 

Willett, W. W. : Narrative of the Military Actions of Colonel 
Marinus Willett. 8vo. New York, 1831. 

Winsor, Justin : Narrative and Critical History of America. 8 
vols., large 8vo. Boston, 1889. 

Worth, G. A.: Random Recollections of Albany. 8vo. Albany, 
1856. 

Yawger, R. N. : The Indian and the Pioneer. 8vo. Syracuse, 
1893 - 


MANUSCRIPTS 

The subjoined list embraces material not existing in 

printed form. In many ways it has shed new and impor¬ 
tant light on the history of this frontier. 

Bissell, Daniel, and Guido, L. : Account books, papers, etc., in 
possession of Mrs. Sumner (Harriet Bissell), of Norwich. 

Brant, Joseph : Letter to Colonel Bolton, written at Oghwaga, 
July, 1779. In Spark’s coll, of MSS. at Harvard. 

Clinton, Governor George : Manuscripts of, in 48 vols. Large 
folio. In State Library at Albany. 

Coad, J. Francis, of Charlotte Hall, Maryland : Papers of, land 
and other, pertaining to the Otego patent. 

Draper, Lyman Copeland : Brant Manuscripts in Library of 
the Wisconsin Hist. Society, Madison. 23 vols., folio. Ex¬ 
amined in the summer of 1900 through courtesy of the librarian, 
Reuben Gold Thwaites. 

Hayes’ Papers : Account books, documents, etc., pertaining to 
the firm of Noble & Hayes. 

Heckewelder, Rev. John : Manuscript in the Historical Soci¬ 
ety of Pennsylvania. 

Johnson, Sir William : Papers of in 25 vols. Large folio. In 
State Library at Albany. 

Johnston, William S.: History of the Susquehanna Valley. A 
fragment. A copy of some parts in MS. exists in library of 
Wisconsin Hist. Soc. 

410 


BIBLIOGRAPHY, ETC. 


Journal relating to Unadilla Valley. In possession of Alexander 
W. Russell, of Westborough, Mass. 

New York State Colonial Manuscripts and Land Papers. 63 vols., 
large Folio. 1643-1803. In office of Secretary of State, Al¬ 
bany. 

Otsego County: Land Records of. In County Clerk’s office, 
Cooperstown, where researches were made gratuitously for the 
author by Lee B. Cruttenden while County Clerk. 

Smith & Wells : Notes of a tour to the head of the Susquehanna 
in 1769. Manuscript copy purchased by author at sale of the 
library of late Dr. George H. Moore, Superintendent of the 
Lenox Library. The original is owned by Mr. Coad, a de¬ 
scendant of Mr. Smith. Quarto, 100 pages. 

Unadilla Town Records. 5 vols., folio. Beginning in 1797. 

Warren, Captain Benjamin : Diary of. In Spark’s Coll., Har¬ 
vard University. 

Wattles, Sluman : Day-book and Court Records of, for years 
before 1800. In possession of Edwin R. Wattles, Sidney 
Centre. 

Whiting, Major Daniel: Letter written at Cherry Valley in 
November, 1778. Now in Spark’s Coll, at Harvard University. 


A Few of the Many 

The individuals who, by letter or interviews during a 
period of many years, have kindly responded to the author’s 
appeals, make an extended list. Among them should at 
least be named the following : The late William Kelby, for 
many years Librarian, and Robert H. Kelby, now Librarian 
of the New York Historical Society; Thomas J. Titus, 
Assistant Librarian of the Mercantile Library; Thomas E. 
Benedict, formerly Deputy Secretary of State ; Hugh Hast¬ 
ings, State Historian ; Charles W. Hooper, Land Clerk in 
the office of the Secretary of State at Albany; the late 
George R. Howell, Archivist of the State Library ; Lee V. 
Cruttenden, formerly County Clerk of Otsego County ; the 
late Perry P. Rogers, of Binghamton ; the Rev. Dr. H. U. 
Swinnerton, and the late John L. Sawyer, of Cherry Val¬ 
ley ; William E. Roscoe, of Carlisle, Schoharie County; 
Harrison W. Nanny, of Goshen ; the late James C. Pill¬ 
ing, of the Smithsonian Institution ; Samuel M. Shaw, of 

4 II 


THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER 


Cooperstown ; A. J. F. Van Laer, Sublibrarian, in charge of 
the Manuscripts in the State Library ; Rufus A. Grider, of 
Canajoharie ; the late Douglas Campbell and John Henry 
Johnston, of New York; the late Clark I. Hayes, of Una- 
dilla; the late D. P. Loomis, Supervisor, and Chester K. 
Belknap, Town Clerk, of Unadilla; Edwin R. Wattles, of 
Sidney Centre; the late Ira E. Sherman and the late Will¬ 
iam A. Fry, of Sidney; the Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, of 
Baldwinsville, N. Y.; and Pere N. Burtin, of Caughna- 
waga, Canada. 


412 



BIBLIOGRAPHY, ETC. 


A Personal Note 

It seems proper to add a few lines here, as to the circum¬ 
stances in which this volume was written. In the summer 
of 1890 my father, Gaius Leonard Halsey, M.D., of Una- 
dilla, wrote for the Unadilla Times a series of papers giving 
reminiscences of his life in that village for fifty years. He 
had long been in failing health, and in the following Feb¬ 
ruary we laid him away in the village churchyard. 

While undertaking to republish his reminiscences in 
pamphlet form, I began to write an introduction, setting 
forth events in village history previous to his arrival there 
in 1840. In this way I literally stumbled upon the events 
set forth in this volume. Born and reared in Unadilla, I 
had grown to manhood and been many years out of college, 
without gaining more than a shadowy impression of those 
events. Brant’s name was known, and I had heard of an 
interview between him and General Herkimer, but I knew 
definitely nothing else in Brant’s career. Of the massacre 
of Cherry Valley I had heard, but why, or when, or how it 
happened, I did not know. 

These facts embraced the sole stock of information I had 
concerning the early history of this frontier. The genera¬ 
tion to which I belong had grown up ignorant of the stirring 
history of their own valley, simply because nothing had been 
published about it in their time, and the early chronicles had 
become scarce books. I then set about collecting material 
for a detailed record, including the annals of the village from 
its settlement down to 1840, and in the course of nearly 
ten years brought together a mass of material from a great 
variety of sources. 

Its publication as a local history was planned, but about 
a year ago I decided to extract from the larger mass so much 
as might be presumed to have wider interest, and to seek to 
have it made public through a regular publishing house, re¬ 
serving the purely local matter for issue in some other way. 

413 



f' 






















—■ 




























Index 













Index 


Abbott, William, 358 
Abraham, Mohawk chief, 22 
Afton, islands near, 27, 275; Gould 
Bacon settles on one of, 345 
Agwrondougwas, Peter, a converted 
Indian, 68 

Alagatinga, an Indian chief, his 
grave, 24 

Albany, as a trading post, 8, 32, 34; 
Indians cheated at, 39 ; plate in St. 
Peter’s Church at, 49 ; council at, 
56; Congress of, 63 ; trade of, in 
danger, 88 ; conference at, with Ind¬ 
ians, 152 ; inhabitants of, preparing 
for flight, 302 ; Brant visits, 323 
Albout, settlement of, 134; Colonel 
William Butler at, 234; General 
Clinton burns, 275 
Alden, Colonel Ichabod, arrives in 
Cherry Valley, 223; sends out 
scouting party, 240; killed, 241, 
242; blamed for massacre, 245; 
his grave, 246 
Alger, Stoughton, 24, 129 
Alsop, George, describes Susque¬ 
hanna Indians, 17 

Andrews, Rev. William, missionary, 
48 

Andrustown, destroyed by Brant, 

211 

Anne of Austria, 45 

Anne, Queen, aids Palatines, 36; 

aids missionaries, 50 
Arnold, General Benedict, relieves 
Fort Schuyler, 193; Walter But¬ 
ler's conviction under, 239; treason 
of, 295 ; meets Talleyrand in Eng¬ 
land, 369 

Ashley, Mrs. B., an interpreter, 55, 
56 

Avery, John, 342 

Avery, Revs. Henry and Peter, 80 

Bacon, Gould, 343; his adventure 
in a freshet, 345 
Bacon, Rev. James, 347, 373 
Bainbridge, Turnpike from, to Eso- 
pus, 176 ; Colonel Timothy Church 
settles in, 342, 350; land values in, 
394 

Baits, David, 345, 397 
Ballard, Captain, goes out from 
Cherry Valley as a scout, 224 
Ballston burned, 300 
Banyar, Gouldsborough, at the Al¬ 
bany Congress, 64; real owner of 


the Wallace patent, 111; sketch of, 
112-114 ; at Sir William Johnson’s 
funeral, 162, 344, 345 
Barclay, Rev. Henry, missionary, 50 
Bateaux, description of, 121 
Baxter, Levi, his mill site, 133, 342 
Beach, A. H., 397 
Beach, Ebenezer, 352 
Beach, Timothy, 343; reaches the 
Ouleout, 347; his adventures, 350; 
his untimely fate, 352 
Beach, William, 353 
Beals, Abraham and Jacob, settle on 
the Susquehanna, 334 
Beardsley, Levi, his Reminiscences, 
125; describes Colonel Alden’s 
grave when opened, 247; settles 
in Richfield, 343 

Beatty, Lieutenant Erkuries, 261; 
his account of Clinton’s descent of 
the Susquehanna, 274 
Beaumetz,-, visits the Susque¬ 

hanna with Talleyrand, 368, 369, 
370 

Beletre,-, destroys German Flats, 

123 

Bennington, battle of, 189 
Benton, Caleb, 382, 383 
Benton, Stephen, lands of, 109, 354, 
382, 397 

Betts, John M., 352 
Betts, Samuel, 342 
Bibliography, 403 
Biddle, Joseph, 127 
Binghamton, hostile Indians at, 66, 
72, 352; first settlement of, 135, 
354; Talleyrand at, 369 
Bissell, Daniel, as a boy, 341,353,396 
Bissell, Guido L., 353, 396 
Bleeker, Captain Johannus, 35, 274 
Bloomville, Scotch-Irish at, 348 

Bolton, Colonel -, commands 

Fort Niagara, 266 
Bostwick, David, 383 
Boswell, James, friend to Brant in 
London, 158 

Boyd, Lieutenant Thomas, his hor¬ 
rible death, 282 

Braddock, General Edward, defeat 
of, 65 

Bradley Farm, meeting place of Her¬ 
kimer and Brant, 179 
Bradley, Peter, 343 
Bradstreet, Gen. John, his lands on 
the Susquehanna, 169 
Bradt, Arendt, his patent, 94 


417 




INDEX 


Brainerd, David, missionary, 52 
Brant, Indians of that name, 158 
Brant, Joseph, portrait of, frontis¬ 
piece; student at Lebanon, 70, 
121,; at Ft. Niagara and Lake 
George, 74 ; interpreter to mission¬ 
aries, 76; teaches Kirkland the 
Mohawk tongue, 78; visitor at 
Sleeper’s house, 128; guide to 
Smith and Wells, 129, 141-142; 
home in Canajoharie, 140; his wife, 
144 ; reply to Dr. Wheelock, 149 ; 
early life of, 157-161; goes to Lon¬ 
don, 162-164; social success in 
London, 165; on Staten Island, 
165 ; described, 166 ; goes to Ogh- 
waga, 168; proposed apprehension 
of, 169; invades Mohawk Valley, 
172 ; extent of his authority, 173, 
184; at Unadilla, 173 ; disperses 
the Unadilla settlement, 173-175 ; 
aided by Tories at Unadilla, 176 ; 
interview with Herkimer at Una¬ 
dilla, 178-184; his loyalty to the 
King, 180; starts for Oswego, 185 ; 
ambushes Herkimer at Oriskany, 
190; preparing to attack Cherry 
Valley, 204; returns to the Sus¬ 
quehanna, 207; at Cobleskill, 208; 
at Cherry Valley, 208-209 I on the 
Charlotte River, 210; burns Spring- 
field, 211; with Butler at Chemung, 
212; causes Wormwood’s death, 
208, 213; means to “fight the cruel 
rebels,” 214; in the Old England 
district, 214 ; goes to Tioga Point, 
215; collects provisions for But¬ 
ler, 215 ; expedition of, to Lacka- 
waxen, 215; not at Wyoming, 
216; intends to attack Cherry 
Valley, 224, 225; destroys Ger¬ 
man Flats, 225-227; returns to 
Unadilla, 226; invades Minisink, 
237 ; granddaughter of killed, 237 ; 
induced to go to Cherry Valley, 
239; regrets killing of Wells fami¬ 
ly, 241; restraining influence of, at 
Cherry Valley, 247; kills a man 
for lying, 248 ; saves the life of a 
Mason, 248; at Sleeper’s Mills, 
250 ; portrait of, facing 158; tries 
to win over Oneidas and Tuscaro- 
ras, 263; at Oghwaga waiting for 
Clinton, 265 ; goes to the Mohawk, 
269 ; goes to Newtown, 278; ready 
for battle, 279 ; described in action, 
279 ; his skilful retreat at Newtown, 
280; surprises Captain Harper, 
288 ; invades Ulster, 289; his hu¬ 
manity, 290; starts from Niagara, 


291; at Fort Schuyler, 292; de¬ 
stroys Canajoharie, 293; collecting 
his forces, 296 ; captures men sent 
out from Fort Schuyler, 299; 
scouts of, on the Mohawk, 302 ; in 
battle on Summit Lake, 305 ; takes 
cattle on the Mohawk, 309 ; orders 
horse killed for food, 311; secures 
lands for Indians after the war, 
318; second visit to London, 320; 
entertained by the Prince of 
Wales, 321; his native dignity il¬ 
lustrated in London, 321; his home 
in Canada, 322; in Philadelphia 
and Albany, 323; letter from, about 
his school days, 324; his death, 
324 ; his character, 325-327 
Brant, King, Joseph’s grandfather, 
158 

Brant, Mollie, 157; marries Sir 
William Johnson, 159; her son 
William, 179 
Brant, Nikus, 157 

Brantford, home of Joseph Brant 
there, 322 

Brant-Sero, J. O., in London, 322 
Breck, Samuel, 369 
Bressani, Joseph, priest among the 
Iroquois, 45 
Brink, Aaron, 335 
Brooks settlement, 212 

Brown, Col.-, killed at Stone 

Arabia. 298 

Brown, Squire -, settles on the 

Unadilla, 123 

Bruehle, Stephen, visits the Susque¬ 
hanna, 33 

Bruyar, Jacques, 44 
Bryant, William C., of Buffalo, his 
estimate of Brant, 325 
Buck Island, forces gathered at, 265 ; 
Sir John Johnson at, 296; an ex¬ 
pedition to, 303 ; Major Ross sails 
from, 305 

Bull, Capt.,-, a Tory, 179 

Bundy, Capt, Peter, settles in Otego, 
130 

Burgoyne, Gen. John, his campaign, 
185 ; captures Fort Ticonderoga, 
188; his progress checked, 189; 
his surrender, 194 
Burhans, Rev. Daniel, 374 
Burnet, Governor William, young 
men sent to Oghwaga by, 38; 
builds fort at Oswego, 186 
Burr, Aaron, introduces Brant to his 
daughter, 323; and the political 
wars of Otsego County, 367 
Burr, Theodosia, entertains Brant, 
32 3 


418 



INDEX 


Bush, Elnathan, 345 
Butler, Col. John, his patent, 103; 
commands Scotch Highlanders, 
150; forbids Indians to injure set¬ 
tlements, 171 ; at Oriskany, 190; 
his Rangers, 203; treaty with 
Indians, 204; to join Brant, 210, 
2ix ; at Tioga Point, 215 ; goes to 
Wyoming, 218; Pennamites with 
him at Wyoming, 220; regrets 
killing ol Wells family, 241; at 
Newtown, 278 ; responsibility for 
Lieut. Boyd’s death, 283; sails 
from Niagara, 291 ; invades the 
Mohawk, 292; lands of, confis¬ 
cated, 337 

Butler, Capt. Walter, organizes 
Cherry Valley Massacre, 239; 
his barbarity at Cherry Valley, 
249 ; at Newtown, 278 ; killed, 306- 
3°7 

Butler, Col. William, in command 
in Schoharie, 229-230; destroys 
Unadilla and Oghwaga. 234-236; 
starts to relieve Cherry Valley, 
243; dams the lake at Coopers- 
town, 260 ; commands light infan¬ 
try, under Gen. Clinton, 272; de¬ 
stroys Indian villages on Cayuga 
Lake, 281; futility of his expe¬ 
dition to the Susquehanna, 314 
Butler, Col. Zebulon, commands 
Forty Fort at Wyoming, 218 
Butternut Creek, settlers on, 122, 
127,212 ; Tories on, 224 ; prisoners 
taken on, 227; Gen. Morris’s ar¬ 
rival on, 366 
Butts, Jacob, 342 

Caldwell, Capt. - , commands 

the enemy at German Flatts, 
228 

Campbell, Douglas, 118 
Campbell, James, his coming to 
America, 120 

Campbell, Col. Samuel, his house 
fortified, 168; succeeds Herkimer 
in command at Oriskany, 192, 238 ; 
returns to Cherry Valley, 333 
Campbell, Mrs. Samuel, a prisoner 
at Cherry Valley, 250; at Kana- 
dasaga, 252 

Campbell, Thomas, Brant wrongly 
put into his “ Gertrude," 216 
Campbell, W. W., his “Annals," 4; 
sketch of, 21-44 1 his father at the 
Cherry Valley massacre, 243 ; his 
account of Walter Butler’s death, 
307; reflections of, on the fate of 
the Iroquois, 317 


Canadurango, Lake, settlements at, 
124 ; scout on, 225 ; beaver dam at, 
261 

Canajoharie, chapel at, 51; Brant's 
home at, 140, 157, 160; patriots at, 
148; Gen. Herkimer at, with his 
militia, 178 ; Gen. Clinton at, 258 ; 
destroyed by Brant, 293; men 
killed at, 302 ; Col. Willett at, 303 
Washington visits, 333 
Cannon, Mrs., put to death. 250 
Carleton, Col. Guy, burns Ballston, 
300 

Carleton Island. See Buck Island 
Carr, John, builds mill on Carr's 
Creek, 133 ; aids Brant, 174 
Carr, Percefer, settles in Edmeston, 
123 ; Brant seeks food from, 183 
aids Tories, 212-213; made a 
prisoner, 226 ; Father Nash in his 
home, 376 

Carr’s Creek, 133, 351 
Case, Samuel H., 380 
Catherinetown, destroyed by the 
Sullivan Expedition, 280 
Catskill Turnpike, 114 ; beginning of, 
138, 354 ; a great highway, 379-391 
Catskill, 384 

Caughnawaga, invaded by Sir John 
Johnson, 291; devastation of com¬ 
pleted, 298 

Caughnawaga, Canada, Mohawks 
living near, 319 

Cayuga Lake, Indian villages on 
destroyed, 281 

Cayugas, drawn into the war, 184 
Chamberlain, Ivory, 378 
Champlain, Samuel de, at Oswego, 
186 

Charlotte River, origin of the name, 
30 ; Palatines make canoes on, 37 ; 
Sir William Johnson's patent on, 
no ; Brant on, 210 ; rafts made at 
mouth of, for prisoners, 251; Sir 
John Johnson at mouth of, 297 : 
lands on, confiscated, 337 ; road to, 
from the Hudson, 379, 388 
Chatham, Earl of, on the employ¬ 
ment of Indians in the war, 164 
Chemung, Brant with Butler at, 212; 

Sullivan expedition at, 278 
Chemung River, rise in, after open¬ 
ing the dam at Otsego Lake, 272 
Chenang, destroyed by Gen. Clinton, 
276. See Binghamton 
Cherry Valley, Gideon Hawley at, 
66; during the French war, 67; 
Lindesay's patent at, 93 ; settled 
by Scotch-Irish, 119-121; roads 
to and from, 138-139 ; the church 


419 



INDEX 


at, 140, 373; meeting of patriots 
in, 148; alarmed by news from 
Oghwaga, 166; Campbell house 
fortified at, 168; families arrive at, 
from Unadilla, 174; Col. Van 
Schaick goes to, with militia, 177 ; 
Herkimer returns to, 182 ; petition 
from, to Gov. Clinton, 204; to be 
attacked, 204-205; fort built at, 
206; Brant invited to, 212 ; an 
expedition to, planned, 216, 224, 
225 ; Col. Alden arrives in, 223; 
massacre of, 238-252; failure of 
authorities to defend, 239-240 ; the 
fort at, 245 ; monument at, facing 
238; second massacre of, 302; 
Washington visits, 333; William 
Cooper arrives at, 357; on the 
Great Western Turnpike, 382 
Choconut, destroyed by Gen. 
Clinton, 276 

Chonobote, destroyed by the Sulli¬ 
van expedition, 281 
Christiansen, Capt., 32 
Church, Col. Timothy, settles in 
Bainbridge, 342 

Clarke, George, his home on Otsego 
Lake, 94 

Clarke, George, Lieut-Gov. 93 
Claus, Col. Daniel, at Oswego, 185; 

letter from to Brant, 326 
Clinton, Gov. George, his papers, 5; 
petition to, 204; criticises Gen. 
Gates, 222 ; advises sending mili¬ 
tia to Unadilla, 229 ; advises 
destruction of Oghwaga, 233 ; cor¬ 
respondence as to Gates, 255-257 ; 
sends Col. Gansevoort to Fort 
Schuyler, 293 ; suggest forts on the 
frontier, 315 ; visits Cherry Valley, 
333 

Clinton, Gen. James, on the Susque¬ 
hanna, 4 ; his brigade of the Sulli¬ 
van expedition, 258 ; builds dam at 
Otsego Lake, 260 ; sends Col. Van 
Schaick to Onondaga, 263; starts 
for Tioga Point, 271 ; portrait of, 
facing 272 ; descent of the Susque¬ 
hanna by, 271-277; reaches Tioga 
Point, 276 

Clyde, Col. Samuel, goes to Una¬ 
dilla with Herkimer, 177 ; makes a 
report, 209, 227 ; at Oriskany, 238 ; 
on the destruction of Canajoharie, 
293 

Clyde, Dr. James D., 238 
Cobleskill, Banyar’s lands in, 112 ; 

battle of, 207-208 ; attacked, 305 
Cockburn, William, 109 
Colden, Alexander, surveyor, 109 


Colden, Cadwalader, report of, on 
the Susquehanna, 38 ; and the land 
grievances of the Mohawks, 161 
Collier, Isaac and Peter, 332 
Colliers, Indians captured at, 172 ; 

Gen. Clinton at, 273-274 
Cone, the brothers, 342 
Conkey, Rev. Alexander, 373 
Connecticut, emigration from, to 
frontier, 388; ancestral roots in, 
339, 340, 342; people from, in 
Cooperstown, 358 

Continental road, not opened by 
Gen. Clinton, 259 

Conway, Gen. Thomas, warnings 
reach him from the frontier, 221 
Cookoze. See Deposit 
Cooper, J. Fenimore, his “Chron¬ 
icles of Cooperstown,” 5 ; his early 
home, 104; his “Wyandotte,” 
112 ; arrives on Otsego Lake, 358, 
portrait of, facing 258; his writ¬ 
ings, 360 

Cooper, Judge William, goes to 
Otsego Lake, 104; his work in 
settling the frontier, 357-364; 
Talleyrand his guest, 369; cost of 
his lands, 395 

Cooperstown, site of an Indian re¬ 
sort, 21-23 1 George Croghan's 
lands at, 103 ; settled by Croghan, 
126, 140-141 ; Gen. Clinton at, 
261; settlers in from Connecticut, 
343 , 35 1 I Talleyrand visits, 369 ; 
church at, 373 ; graves of Father 
Nash and Cooper at, 378 
Corlear (or Van Curler), Arendt, 
saves Father Jogues, 45 
Corn Planter, the, co-operating with 
Brant, 296; kindness of, to his 
white father, 299 

Cornwallis, Gen. Lord, his sur¬ 
render, 208 

Cosby’s Manor Patent, 93 
Council Rock, 21 

Cox, Col. Ebenezer, angry words 
with Brant, 181killed at Oris¬ 
kany, 190 

Crafts, Capt. Samuel, 344 
Croghan, Col. George, his Otsego 
patent, 103 : settles on, 126, 140- 
141: note of unpaid, 169-170; 
Gen. Clinton on the site of his 
home, 261 ; loses his Otsego lands, 
357 

Crosby, Rev. Aaron, missionary, 

81 

Crysler, Adam, at Wyoming, 218, 
219 ; goes to Vroomansville, 294 ; 
in battle at Summit Lake, 306 


420 



INDEX 


Cully, Matthew, settles on the Sus¬ 
quehanna, 126 ; Gen. Clinton at 
his farm, 273 ; returns to his farm, 
334 

Cunahunta, an Oneida village, 27, 
143 ; destroyed by Col. William 
Butler, 235 ; Gen. Clinton at, 274- 
275 

Currietown burned, 304 
Cusick, David, his History of the 
Six Nations," 2s 
Cutting, Leonard M., 395 

Dakazenensere, Isaac, 77 
Dartmouth College, origin of, 82 ; 

Brant sends his sons to, 323 
Dartmouth, Earl of, employment of 
Indians in the war, 151 
Deane, James, as interpreter, 80; as 
an Indian Commissioner, 210 ; at 
Otsego Lake, 262 

De Forest, family of, settle on 
the Unadilla River, 123; Capt. 
Abel, 343 

Delaware, the settlements on, in¬ 
vaded, 201 ; Brant gets supplies 
on, 207 

Delaware County, western boundary 
of, 102 

Delaware Indians, party of, captured 
on the Susquehanna, 74 
Dellius, Rev. Dr. Godfriedus, 
among the Mohawks, 47 
Demesses camp, Gen. Clinton at, 
273 

Dennison, Col., his agreement 
broken, 238 

Depew, Chauncey M., 393 
Deposit, formerly Cookoze, 101-102 ; 

Brant at, 237 ; railroad at, 390 
Dickinson, Daniel S., 356 
Diefendorf, Jacob, alive on his own 
grave, 304 

Dietz, Capt., his family murdered, 
305; his sufferings as a prisoner, 
3ii 

Dongan, Governor Thomas, his in¬ 
terest in the Susquehanna, 34; 
secures missionaries, 46; thwarts 
William Penn, 88-92 
Donnelly, Terence, 383 
Doxstader, John, commands Tories 
at Torlock, 304 ; a colt he lost, 
3ii 

Dunlop, Rev. Samuel, brings Scotch- 
Irish to Cherry Valley, 120; his 
church there, 140; escapes the 
massacre, 244 

Dunnavan, Anthony, shot as a de¬ 
serter, 262 


Dusler, John, his affidavit as to Her¬ 
kimer and Brant, 181 
Dutch, the, as fur traders, 7, 87 
Dwight, Rev. Dr. Timothy, his 
anecdote of Sir William Johnson 
and King Hendrick, 96; visits the 
Catskill Turnpike, 383-387 

East Sidney, 349, 355 
Edmeston, settlers in, 122, 123 ; 

three men killed at, 225 
Edwards, Rev. Jonathan; interest 
in the Indians, 52, 54 ; at Stock- 
bridge, 56; hears from Gideon 
Hawley, 65 

Edwards, Jonathan, Jr.,at Oghwaga, 
64 

Eghwagy, Creek, white men reach, 
35 

Elerson, David, adventure of near 
Otsego Lake, 260: with the Sul¬ 
livan expedition, 283 
Ellison, William, 357 
Elm Grove, settled, 127 
English, the, as fur traders, 8 
Erie Canal, 369 
Erie Railway, 389, 391 
Esopus, turnpike to, 176 ; prisoners 
taken near, 293 

Esther, Queen, at Wyoming, 2x9 
E Tow O Koam, King of the River 
Indians in 1710; portrait of, facing 
158 

Fenn, Rev. S., of Harpersfield, 172 
Ferguson, William, 128 
Fisher, Col. -, his failure to re¬ 

lieve Cherry Valley, 246 
Forbes, Rev. Eli, at Oghwaga, 69, 72 
Forbes, Virginia Isabel, the author's 
wife, dedication to, iii 
Ford, Lieut.-Col. Jacob, sends out 
scouting parties, 213 
Fort Dayton, 226 ; scalps taken at, 
264; attacked, 295 
Fort Herkimer, 226 ; troops at, 305 
Fort Hunter, mission at, 49, 59; 
patent at, 92; Sir John Johnson 
at, 297 

Fort Niagara, winter headquarters 
for Indians and Tories, 187 ; Brant 
at, 263 ; prisoners taken to, 289, 
3°5 

Fort Orange, 8, 32 
Fort Oswego, British forces gathered 
at, 185; an ancient rendezvous, 
186 ; attack from expected, 202 ; 
view of, facing 186 ; the enemy at, 
291, 309; Willett attempts capture 
of, 309 ; Indians dismissed at, 310 


421 




INDEX 


Fort Plank, 264 

Fort Schuyler, new name for Fort 
Stanwix, 187; invested by St. 
Leger, 188; St. Leger’s flight 
from, 194; Indians hovering about, 
288 ; the enemy at, 292 ; suffering 
at, 300 ; its barracks burned, 302 ; 
abandoned, 305; settlement planted 
near, 339 

Fort Stanwix, treaty of, 99-103 ; re¬ 
named Fort Schuyler, 187, which 
see; 399 

Forty Fort, besieged at Wyoming, 
218, 238 

Fox, Charles James, gives Brant a 
snuff-box, 320 

Franchots, settle Louisville, 127 

Franklin, Benjamin, 7 ; his Plan of 
Union. 63; at the treaty of Fort 
Stanwix, 100; scalp story attributed 
to, 313-314 

Franklin, Col. William Butler in, 
234; Sluman Wattles settles in, 
34 8 , 355 . 373 . 3 8 4 

Franklin, William, 348, 357 

Frederic, Harold, his “ In the Val¬ 
ley,” 249 

Frontenac, Count Louis de Buode, 
burns Schenectady, 92; at Os¬ 
wego, 186 

Fuller, Abraham, builds mills on the 
Ouleout, 135, 355 


Indians, 73 ; patriots of, 148 ; ren¬ 
dezvous of General Herkimer, 189; 
Arnold's relief force at, 193 ; scalp¬ 
ing parties near, 213 ; warnings as 
to attack on, 223 ; Brant destroys, 
225-226; the enemy at, 288, 302 ; 
lands of Colonel Guy Johnson at, 
confiscated, 337; influx of settlers 
to, 339 

Gilbert, Abijah, 368 
Gilbertsville, 368 

Glasford, -, a Tory, 235, 236, 

275 

Good Peter, chief of the Oneidas, 54; 

as a missionary, 68, 69 
Goodyear, Jared, 343 
Goodyear Mills, 23 
Gordon, Dowager Duchess of, 127 
Gould, Jay, his “ History of Dela¬ 
ware County,” 5, 120 
Guild, Israel, 357 

Grand River, lands of Mohawks on. 
3i9 

“ Grant, Rev. Mr.,” 376 
Grants, New Hampshire, General 
Stark's attention to, 257, 341 
Gray, Captain William, his map, 130; 
describes the destruction of Ogh- 
waga, 235 

Great Inland River, 19, 332 
Greene, Talleyrand visits, 369 
Groesbeck, John, his patent, 94 


Gaine, Hugh, 108 
Gano, Rev. John, chaplain of Gen¬ 
eral Clinton's brigade, 262 ; ac¬ 
count of departure from Otsego 
Lake, 271-272 

Gansevoort, Colonel Peter, com¬ 
mands Fort Schuyler, 188; an¬ 
nounces attack on Cherry Valley 
as planned, 240; sent to Fort 
Schuyler, 293 

Gates, General Horatio, neglect of 
frontier by, 221 ; responsibility for 
neglect, 255 

Gathtsewarohare, destroyed by the 
Sullivan expedition, 281 
Genesee country, Sullivan's expe¬ 
dition in, 281 ; New England men 
settle in, 338 

Geneva. See Kanadesaga 
George III, views as to Fort Stan¬ 
wix treaty, 102; receives Brant, 
320 

George IV entertains Brant, 321 
Germaine, Lord George, Brant's in¬ 
terviews with, 162-164 
German Flatts, massacre and burn¬ 
ing of, 67, 123 ; conference at with 


Haldimand, Sir Frederick, 
promises to the Indians, 150; 
“ scalp story," 315 
Halsey, Gaius Leonard, 388, 413 
Halsey, Matthew, 344 
Hamilton, Alexander, 368 
Hancock, John, 151 
Hand, General Edward, fails to pro¬ 
tect Cherry Valley, 239-240, 244, 
246 ; visits Cherry Valley after the 
war, 333 

Handsome Brook, Colonel William 
Butler's camp at its mouth, 236 
Hanford, Uriah, 397 
Hanna, William, goes to Unadilla 
with Herkimer, 178 ; his hotel, 385, 
386, 387 

Hare, Lieutenant Henry, hanged as 
a spy, 258 

Harper, family of, settle in Cherry 
Valley, 120; settle in Harpers- 
field, 131; return to Harpersfield, 
334 

Harper, Captain Alexander, reports 
as to the enemy, 214 ; taken by 
Brant, 288 ; a chief saves his life, 
290 ; opening roads, 380 


422 



INDEX 


Harper, Colonel John, at school in 
Lebanon, 121 ; vigilance commit¬ 
tee formed in his house, 149; sent 
to Oghwaga, 169-171 ; captures 
Indians at Colliers, 171; at the in¬ 
terview between Brant and Her¬ 
kimer, 179; raises a company of 
light horse, 201 ; to raise state 
troops, 206; secures squadron of 
cavalry from Albany, 216; de¬ 
stroys Skoiyase, 281; watches Sir 
John Johnson, 296 ; relations with 
Indians after the war, 324 ; lands 
of, 348 

Harper, Captain William, his pat¬ 
ent, 143; criticises Klock's con¬ 
duct at Cherry Valley, 246 
Harpersfield, patent at, 131 ; vigil¬ 
ance committee formed at, 149; 
alarm at, 177 ; in Tory hands, 201; 
troops wanted at, 221; burned by 
Brant, 289 ; settled again, 355 
Hartford County, Conn., 339 
Hartley, Colonel, follows Butler 
from Wyoming, 219; his action 
one of the causes of the Cherry 
Valley massacre, 229 
Hartwick, John C., settles his pat¬ 
ent, 125 

Hastings, Hugh, State Historian, 
his “ Clinton Papers,” 5 
Hawley, Rev. Gideon, missionary, 
23, 55 1 at Stockbridge, 57 ; goes 
to Oghwaga, 58-62; war inter¬ 
rupts his work, 63-67 ; labors else¬ 
where, 68 

Hayes, Isaac, 343, 354, 389 
Heckewelder, Rev. John, definition 
of the word Susquehanna, 18 
Helmer, John A., gives warning to 
German Flatts, 223 
Hendrick, King, at school in Stock- 
bridge, 56 ; anecdote of, 96 
Hendrickson, 33 
Herkimer, Abraham, 183 
Herkimer, George, 183 
Herkimer, Henry, his farm, 124,212 
Herkimer, General Nicholas, a 
Palatine, 38; sent to Unadilla, 
177; interview with Brant, 178-184; 
calls out militia, 189 ; advance on 
Fort Schuyler, 190 ; at the battle 
of Oriskany, 190-192; wounded, 
190; his death, 192 
Herkimer County rapidly peopled, 
339 

Hicks, John, 128 
Himmel, Baltus, 335 
Hiokatoo, commands Senecas at 
Cherry Valley, 240, 247 


Hotchkiss, Lemuel, 383 
Honeoye, destroyed by the Sullivan 
expedition, 281 

Honeyost, letters of, 83 ; eloquence 
of, 84 

Houck flat, Herkimer’s camp on, 
179 

Houghtaling, Abraham, 335 
Howe, Sir William, sails for Ameri¬ 
ca, 165 ; Brant serves under, 168 
House, John, captured by Brant, 
269 

Howard, Lord, of Effingham, 89 
Hudson, Henry, 6 
Hughston, James, 341, 349 
Hughston, Jonas, 349 
Hunt, Menad, 380 
Hunt, Ransom, 342, 395 
Huntington, Gurdon, 353 

Ingaren, destroyed by General 
Clinton, 276 

Iroquois, the greatest of all Indians, 
xi; their coming to New York, 

12 ; fort of, facing 12 ; their league, 

13 ; their imperial domain, 14 ; 

never a numerous people, 15; 
their frontier lands, 16 ; trails of, 
29 ; chiefs of, in London, 35, 50; 
Jesuit priests among, 43-47 ; Eng¬ 
lish missionaries to, 47-51 ; Elihu 
Spencer's labor among, 53 ; Gid¬ 
eon Hawley's, 56-68 ; four west¬ 
ern nations leaving the English, 
69; Dr. Wheelock's interest in, 
69-72, 76-79, 82; last missions 

among, 80-84; message from, to 
Charles II, 90; at the Fort Stan- 
wix treaty, 99-103 ; their course in 
the war, 149-156 ; land grievances 
of, 163; meet Herkimer at Una¬ 
dilla, 178 ; losses at Oriskany, 192: 
revenge their motive in the border 
wars, 195; council with, at Johns¬ 
town, 205; why they helped de¬ 
stroy Cherry Valley, 238; at 
massacre of Cherry Valley, 239- 
252; attack Lackawaxen, 264; 
sent against Sullivan, 265 ; invade 
Minisink, 266; towns of, destroyed 
by Clinton, 276 ; at the battle of 
Newtown, 279 ; Sullivan destroys 
their villages, 28O-283 ; they lay 
waste Schoharie and the Mohawk, 
287-294; gather at Tioga Point, 
296; the number of those who 
served in the war, 310 ; abandoned 
by the British, 310; their appall¬ 
ing losses, 316 ; their help to Eng¬ 
land in overthrowing France, 318 ; 


423 


INDEX 


their homes after the war, 317-319; 
great central trail of, 391 
Ithaca, road to, from the Ouleout, 
380 

j AMES II, 91 
ay, John, 367, 368 

Jemison, Mary, 186, 187; describes 
Hiokatoo, 247; quoted, 283 ; fur¬ 
nishes food for Brant, 311 
Jesuit missionaries, their devotion, 
43 ; as political agents of France, 
46, 318 ; Dongan's opposition to, 
47 

Jogues, Father Isaac, among the 
Mohawks, 43 ; murdered, 45 
Johnson, Mrs., 357 
Johnson, Colonel Guy, succeeds 
Sir William, 148; interferes with 
missionaries, 149; removes to 
Canada, 150; instructions to, from 
England, 151; bills of, for enter¬ 
tainment of Indians in London, 
165; sends Brant to Oghwaga, 
168 ; disagreement with Brant, 
172 ; lands of, confiscated, 337 
Johnson, Sir John, sent to Oghwaga, 
75; attainted, no; his loyalty to 
England, 152; at Oswego, 185; 
his Royal Greens at Wyoming, 
218; at Newtown, 278; expected 
on the Mohawk, 288 ; his arrival 
and work of destruction, 291; sends 
Cryslerto Schoharie, 294; his sec¬ 
ond expedition to the Mohawk, 
295-300; his lands confiscated, 
338 

Johnson, Sir William, sends traders 
to Oghwaga, 39; portrait of, facing 
40 ; builds chapel at Canajoharie, 
51; his interest in missionaries, 53 ; 
aids Gideon Hawley, 58 ; asked to 
send no more rum to Indians, 62 ; 
influence of with the Iroquois, 63, 
196 ; at the battle of Lake George, 
66; opposes further settlements, 
71; convenes German Flatts con¬ 
ference, 73; sends expedition 
against hostile Indians, 74-75 ; his 
Susquehanna patent, 95; his 
“ dreamland tract,” 96-97; nego¬ 
tiates treaty of Fort Stanwix, 99- 
103; his lands in the Charlotte 
Valley, no; his sudden death, 
147; as to land grievances of the 
Mohawks, 161: marries Mollie 
Brant, 159; Joseph Brant his inter¬ 
preter, 160; his trading post at 
Oswego, 186 ; his work at a critical 
moment, 318 


Johnson, William, a half-breed, 
anecdote of, 79, 160, 179 
Johnston, Hugh, saves a family at 
Cherry Valley, 243; returns to 
Sidney, 335 

Johnston, Milton C., Brant's camp 
on his farm, 179 

Johnston, Witter, settles in Sidney 
with his father, 133; returns to 
Sidney, 335 

Johnston, Rev. William, in the Mo¬ 
hawk Valley, 58 ; buys land at Sid¬ 
ney, hi ; families follow him, 131; 
his early history, 131; settles in 
Sidney, 133-134; forced to aban¬ 
don his settlement, 173-175; re¬ 
turns to Unadillawith Herkimer, 
177; asks for troops to be sent to 
Cherry Valley, 204; preaches in 
Cherry Valley, 224; escapes the 
massacre, 243 ; chaplain of Colo¬ 
nel Alden’s regiment, 244; his 
death, 335. 

Johnston Settlement, 26, 133-134; 
Colonel Harper at with a regiment, 
170 ; destruction of, prevented, 172; 
dispersed by Brant, 173-175 ; Her¬ 
kimer’s meeting at with Brant, 
177-184 ; Butler at, 234. See Sid¬ 
ney. 

Johnstown, Councils at, 161, 205 ; Sir 
John Johnson at, 291; Major Ross 
overcome at, 306 
Jones, Robert, affidavit of, 214 
Josephine, Empress of France, 359 

Kalm, Peter, 40 
Kanadesaga, Cherry Valley massa¬ 
cre celebrated at, 251; incident 
at, 252 ; destroyed by the Sullivan 
expedition, 281 

Kanaghsaws, destroyed by the Sul¬ 
livan expedition, 281 
Kanawaholla, destroyed by the Sul¬ 
livan expedition, 280 
Kellogg, Martin, an interpreter, 64 
Kelly, Barnabas, statement by, 212 
Kendaia, destroyed by the Sullivan 
expedition, 280 
King, Rufus, 367 
King, Thomas, 81 

Kirkland, Samuel, missionary, 78 ; 

influence of with Oneidas, 149, 154 
Kleynties,-, explores the Susque¬ 

hanna, 32 

Klipnockie, early colloquial name 
for Oneonta, 335 

Klock, Colonel -, fears for the 

fate of Tryon County, 221; or¬ 
dered to defend Cherry Valley, 




INDEX 


240; his failure to arrive in time, 

243. 245 

Klock’s Field, battle of, 298 
Klock, George, described as ‘‘ an old 
rogue,” 161, 181 
Knapp,-, 127 

Kortright, its early prosperity, 388 

Lackawaxen, Brant’s expedition 
to, 215 ; attacked, 264 ; Brant's bat¬ 
tle near, 267-268; the enemy at, 
3°5 

Lafayette, Marquis de, forts built 
at the instance of, 206 
Lansing, John, 115 
La Salle, 14 
Laurens, settled, 128 
Laurens, Henry, 128 
Leather Stocking, 104 ; his farewell 
to Otsego Lake, 332, 361 
Lebanon, Indian school at, 69 ; mis¬ 
sionaries from, 76; work of the 
school at, 82, 170; Brant’s grati¬ 
tude to, 324 

Lee, General Charles, 365, 367 
Leonard, Joseph, 354 
Le Quoy, F. Z., 359 
Levy, Hayman, a trader, 107 
Lindesay, his Cherry Valley patent, 
93 ; settles on the patent, 1x9 
Litchfield, Conn., 340 
Little Aaron, saves Mr. Dunlop at 
Cherry Valley, 244 
Little Beard's Town, destroyed by 
the Sullivan expedition, 281 
Little Falls, eleven men killed at, 
3 °S 

Livingston, John, 114 
Livingston, Peter V. B., lands of, 
114. 348 

Livingston, Philip, his lands, 93-94 
Logan, the Indian orator, 18 

Long, Captain-, 231-232, 236 

Louis Philippe, 370 
Lounsbury, Professor T. R., quoted, 
338 ; his “ Life of Fenimore Coop¬ 
er," 358 

Low, Cornelius, a New York mer¬ 
chant, 106-107 

Low, Nicholas, settles on Otsego 
Lake, 125 

Lull, Benjamin, 127 

Machin, Captain Thomas, helps 
make the West Point chain, 258 ; 
goes against the Onondagas, 263 
McAuley, Rev. William, 388 
McDonald,-, a Tory, 201 ; in¬ 

vades Schoharie, 216 
McGinnis, Robert, 111, 131 


McKean, Captain Robert, in the 
French war, 67, invites Brant to 
Cherry Valley, 212 ; goes to Una- 
dilla as a scout, 223; Brant in¬ 
quires after, 247; marriage of, 
244 ; killed, 304 

McKee, Miss Annie, runs the gant¬ 
let, 312 

McKown, William, his adventure 
with Brant, 209 

McMaster, David, settles in Unadil- 
la, 131 ; driven out, 174; goes to 
Unadilla with Herkimer, 178 ; es¬ 
capes massacre at Cherry Valley, 
244 ; returns to Sidney, 335 
McMaster, Professor John B., 381 

McWhorter, Dr. -, 130 

Martin Brook, 353 

Martin, Solomon, 353, 381, 395, 396 

Maryland, early settlement of, 127 ; 

settlers after the war, 344 
Massachusetts, emigration from to 
the frontier, 338 
Mathews, Mayor David, 109 
Mayall, Joseph, settles in Laurens, 
128 

Maynard, Lieutenant-Colonel Jon¬ 
athan, his life saved by Brant, 248 ; 
killed at Cobleskill, 208 

Megapolensis, Dominie-, among 

the Mohawks, 46 
Meredith, 377, 385 
Metcalf, Simon, surveyor, 101 
Middleburgh, Palatines settle, 36 ; 

Sir John Johnson invades, 297 
Middlefield, settled, 126 ; inhabitants 
of retire to Cherry Valley, 209; 
settlers return to, 234 
Middleton, Peter, his patent, 104, 
108 

Milet, Rev. Peter, missionary among 
the Oneidas, 43 
Miller, John, 357 
Miln, Rev. John, missionary, go 
Minisink, invaded from Oghwaga, 
214 ; route through to the Susque¬ 
hanna, 218 ; Brant invades, 237 ; 
battle of, 265-269 ; Brant’s account 
of the battle, 267 ; prisoners taken 
at, 289 ; the enemy at, 302 
Mitchell, Dr. Henry, 394 
Mohawks, home of, 32 ; murder of 
Father Jogues, 45 ; Megapolensis 
visits, 46 ; Dr. Dellius among, 47 ; 
Bernardus Freeman labors among, 
48 ; T. Moor’s labors, 48 ; William 
Andrews’s, 48; John Miln’s, 50; 
at school in Stockbridge, 56-57; 
act as teachers, 77 ; consumption 
among, 83; and Sir William John- 



INDEX 


son, 96; village lands of, iox ; 

King of, 158; Colonel Guy John¬ 
son's conference with, 149; re¬ 
move to Canada, 151; land griev¬ 
ances of, 161 ; go to Oghwaga, 

166; at Unadilla to meet Her¬ 
kimer, 178-184 ; confined to one 
place, 180; not hostile to Penn, 

216; number of in the war, 310 ; 
lands of on Grand River, 319; 
Brant translates the Gospel of 
Mark into tongue of, 323 
Mohawk Valley, traders in, 3; pat¬ 
ents in, 92-93 ; population before 
the Revolution, 117; state of in 
1757, 124 ; invaded by Brant, 172 ; 
disaster enters, 223; main war 
scenes shifted to, 287 ; Sir John 
Johnson invades, 291 ; Butler and 
Brant invade, 292 ; Sir John's sec¬ 
ond invasion of, 298-300 ; Willett in 
command in, 301; Major Ross in¬ 
vades, 305; threatened with in¬ 
vasion, 309; return to, of the set¬ 
tlers, 331-336 ; Hugh White arrives 
in, 339; confiscation of Indian 
lands in, 337 ; William Cooper in, 

357 ; granaries in exhausted, 363 ; 
railways in, 391 
Mohicans, village of, 143 
Monmouth, battle of, 203 
Montcalm, Marquis de, dismantles 
Oswego, 187 

Montour, Captain Andrew, destroys 
Indian town, 75 

Montreal, original home of Iroquois 
near, 13 

Moor, Rev. T., missionary, 48 

Moore, Mrs. -, a prisoner at 

Cherry Valley, 250 
Moore, Colonel John, settles on the 
Susquehanna, 334. 

Moore, Jonathan, 342 
Morgan, Lewis H., his “ League of 
the Iroquois," 12 ; quoted, 43 
Morris, churches of, 373 
Morris, Gouverneur, 370 
Morris, General Jacob, pioneer on 
Butternut Creek, 365-368, 380 
Morris, Lewis, 366 
Morris, Staats Long, his patent, 104, 

366; visits the patent, 127; his 
route, 138, 379 
Morrisania, 366 

Mosley, Rev. Eleazer, missionary, 

80, 144 

Mosley, Rev. Elisha, 373 
Moses, an Indian, 160 
Mount Moses, 24 
Mount Vision, 357 

426 


Mum ford, George, settles at mouth 
of Cherry Valley Creek, 342 
Munro, Henry, missionary, 51 
Murphy, Timothy, his prowess in 
war, 232-233; with the Sullivan 
expedition, 287 
Musson, William, 368 

Napoleon Bonaparte, 359, 372 
Nash, Rev. Daniel, his work as a 
founder of churches, 374-378 
Newbury, Sergeant, hanged as a 
spy, 258 

Newell, Nathan, 343 
New England, pioneers from, on the 
frontier, 337-346 
New Milford, 374 

Newtown, Indians to make a stand 
at, 265; fortifications at, 278; 
battle of, 279-280 
Noble, Curtis, 343, 354, 389, 397 
Northumberland, Duke of, his 
relations to Brant, 320 ; friendship 
for Brant, 325-326 

Oaks Creek, 125 
O'Bail, John, son of the Corn 
Planter, 299 

Occum, Samson, educated Indian, 
69; letter of, to the Iroquois, 155 
Oel, Rev. John J., missionary, 51 
Ogden, family of, in Otego, 130; 
driven out by Brant, 175 ; escape 
massacre at Cherry Valley, 244; 
Gen. Clinton camps on the farm 
of, 273, 275; return to Otego, 
335 ; Daniel, 351 

Oghwaga, chief town on the upper 
Susquehanna, 27; forms of the 
word, 27 ; Indians of. 28 ; young 
men sent to, 38 ; Elihu Spencer 
at, 53 ; Gideon Hawley at, 57, 60; 
fort built at, 65 ; Indians of, 67 ; 
hostile Indians at, 73 ; Sir John 
Johnson's expedition to, 75 ; Ralph 
Wheelock at, 79 ; Eleazer Moseley 
at, 80 ; Aaron Crosby at, 81; Smith 
and Wells at, 144 ; Mohawk head¬ 
quarters, 166; Col. Harper at, 
170 ; message from to Gen. Her¬ 
kimer, 178; warriors at, 181 ; 
Indians at, after Oriskany, 195; 
Delaware settlements invaded 
from, 201 ; Brant returns to, 207 ; 
Minisink invaded from, 214; 
Butler returns to, from Wyoming, 
219; Gov. Clinton advises de¬ 
struction of, 233; Col. William 
Butler destroys, 237; Brant at, 
waiting for Gen. Clinton, 265; 



INDEX 


Minisink invaded from, 265 ; Gen. 
Clinton at, 276 ; prisoners at, 2S9 ; 
settled from New England, 343 
Oghwaga Hill, 276 
Ogilvy, Rev. John, missionary, 51 
Old England District, 127; Brant 
in, 214 

Onawatoge, Brant destroys, 279 
Oneidas, lands of, 16-17 ; mission¬ 
aries to, 49; at Oghwaga, 69; school 
among, 77; in Wisconsin, 83; 
loyal to Americans, 154 ; oppose a 
war measure, 184 ; invade Edmes- 
ton, 226-227 ; Brant tries to win 
over, 263; one of them kills 
Walter Butler, 307 ; numbers of 
them in the war, 310 ; confirmed 
in possession of their lands, 319 ; 
on the Susquehanna after the war, 
332; lands New York bought 
from, 342 

Oneonta, Indian relics burned at, 
23 ; main street of, 29 ; settled, 
129 ; settlers return to, 334 ; first 
church at, 373, 381; turnpike to, 
388 ; prosperity of, 387 
Oneonta Creek, store-house on, 142; 
Brant visits, 143 

Onondaga, the Iroquois capital, 15 ; 
French intrigue at, 35 ; Col. Van 
Schaick’s expedition to, 263; 
sentiment divided at, 318 
Onondagas, drawn into war, 184; 

expedition against, 363 
Oothout Voleert, his patent, 94 
Oriskany, patent of, 93 ; battle of, 
152, 188-192 ; meaning of, to fron¬ 
tier, 194; Indian revenge for 
losses at, 205, 315 ; monument at, 
facing 196 

Otego, the patent, 105 ; surveyed, 
127, 141; Gen. Clinton dt, 174; 
Ransom Hunt settles in, 342 
Otego Creek, village at mouth of, 24, 
60; Sir William Johnson's “ dream¬ 
land tract " not at, 97 ; Smith and 
Wells at, 143 ; Gen. Clinton at, 
275 

Otsdawa Creek, settled, 128 
Otsego Lake, other names for, 21-22, 
32; on an early map, 33 ; trans¬ 
portation by way of, 38 ; mission¬ 
aries at, 76; George Croghan at, 
103; settlement at, 125-126; roads to 
and from, 139, 224, 379 ; Clinton 
at, 255-262 ; Col. Alden's regiment 
ordered to, 259 ; road to, from the 
Mohawk, 259 ; adventure of David 
Elerson near, 260; Anthony Dunn- 
avan shot at, 262 ; Gen. Clinton 


starts from, 271 ; Washington 
visits, 333 ; settled from Connecti¬ 
cut, 342-343; William Cooper 
arrives at, 357 ; Gen. Jacob Morris 
at, 365 ; canal from, 390, 399 
Otsego County, rapidity of its 
early settlement, 125, 346; first 

Judge of, 359; William Cooper's 
work in settling, 360-364 ; famine 
in, 363 ; political wars of, 367 ; its 
early population, 389; slaves in, 
397 

Otsego Hall, 357, 362 
Otseningo, destroyed by Gen. Clin¬ 
ton, 276 
Ouaquaga, 276 

Ouleout, settled, 135 ; Col. William 
Butler goes down, 234; Indian 
huts on, 236; settled after the war, 
341 ; mouth of, 347 ; road from, 
to Geneva, 380; settlers on, 

384 

Owego, meaning of the word, 101; 
line of property at, 103; destroyed 
by Gen. Clinton, 276 ; first settlers 
of, 355 
Oxford, 387 

Page, Sherman, 354, 399 
Paine, Edward, 380 
Painted Post, Indian forces collected 
at, 296 

Palatine, settlement near, invaded, 
288 

Palatines, the German, in Schoharie 
and the Mohawk, 35; descend 
the Susquehanna, 37; their New 
York settlements, 38, 116 ; patriot¬ 
ism of, 148 ; supplanted by New 
Englanders, 337 
Pallas, an Indian, 59, 60 
Palmer's Island, 19 
Parkman, Francis, 14, 40, 44 
Patchin, Freegift, taken to Niagara 
as a prisoner, 289 

Patrick, Capt.-, killed at Cobles- 

kill, 208 

Peck, Judge Jedediah, 344, 398 
Pennamite wars, 218 
Penn, William, seeks to gain the 
Susquehanna, 34, 88; revenge on 
Governor Dongan, 91 
Petrie, John J., his lands, 94 
Phelan Place, in Cherry Valley, 
241 

Pontiac, conspiracy of, 72, 73 
Pouchot, M., describes the Susque¬ 
hanna, 39 

Preston, Amos, 343 
Prevost, Captain Augustin, 126 


INDEX 


Quackenbush, Adam, 335 
Quackyac, commands the Indians at 
Torlock, 304 
Quebec, fall of, 69, 87 

Rac-Soutagh, an Indian, 158 
Renonard, Andrew, 127, 359 
Rice, Rev. Asaph, at Oghwaga, 69 
Richfield, the Schuyler patent at, 94; 
first settled, 124 ; Indians at, 224 ; 
Levi Beardsley settles in, 343 
Ridgway, William, 127, 143 
Rivington, James, 108 
Roberts, Ellis H., 14 
Rogers, Perry P., 336; his reminis¬ 
cences, 393 
Rogers, Samuel, 342 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 8 
Root, Erastus, 342, 396 
Rose, Colonel William, 343, 354 
Ross, Betsy, makes the first flag, 

188 

Ross, Major -, invades the Mo¬ 

hawk, 305; driven back to the 
wilderness, 306 

St. Leger, General Barry, his 
campaign, 185 ; organizes his force 
at Oswego, 187; invests Fort 
Schuyler, 188; renews the siege, 

193; his sudden flight, 194; on 
Lake Champlain, 300 
Saga Yean Qua Resh, Tow, king of 
the Mohawks, 158 
Sand Hill Creek, 24 
Sands, Judge Obadiah, 397 
Sands, Frederick A., 397 
Sau, Rau Roh Wah, Indian chief, 
his death, 25 

Sawyer,-, kills two Indians, 263 ; 

“ Scalp Story," 313 
Schenectady, missionaries at, 47; 
settlement of and burning of, 92 ; 
settlers coming into, 210, 264; to 
be destroyed, 300 

Schenevus Creek, 23 ; settlement at 
mouth of, 122 ; Indians captured 
on, 171 

Schoharie, meaning of the word, 31; 
Palatines in, 36 ; complaints from, 

201; half in ruins, 202 ; invaded, 

216; troops wanted at, 221; Col¬ 
onel William Butler arrives in, 

230 ; after the Susquehanna expe¬ 
dition, 236; prisoners taken in, 

264; main war scenes shifted to, 

287; prisoners taken at, 292; Sir 
John Johnson desolates, 297; alarm 
in, 308 ; land values in, 395 
Schuyler, David ; his patent, 94 

428 


Schuyler's Lake. See Canadurango 
Lake 

Schuyler, Mayor Peter, in London 
with Iroquois chiefs, 35, 50, 158 
Schuyler, General Philip, convenes 
conference with Indians, 151; con¬ 
fers with Herkimer, 177 ; endorses 
warnings from frontier, 204 

Schwartz,-, 335 

Scotch Highlanders, on the Mo¬ 
hawk, 1x6 

Scotch-Irish, on the Susquehanna, 
116 ; their influence in America, 
xi8,119 ; in Unadilla, 130 ; on the 
Ouleout, 135; in Sidney, 133; 
their patriotism, 148; in Connect¬ 
icut, 341 ; supplanted by New 
Englanders, 337; start migration 
to Wattles’s ferry, 348 
Scramling, family of, settles in One- 
onta, 129 ; Henry goes to Unadilla 
with Herkimer, 178 ; returns to 
Oneonta, 334 ; David and George 
settle in Oneonta, 334 
Sears, Captain Isaac, 108 
Senecas, lands of, 30, 32; peaceful 
times among, 152 ; drawn into the 
war, 184 ; at the Oswego confer¬ 
ence, 186; beaten at Oriskany, 
188-192 ; fail to attend the Johns¬ 
town council, 205 ; join Brant, 215 ; 
at Wyoming, 218 ; why they went 
to Cherry Valley, 238 ; barbarities 
of, 247 ; invade Sleeper’s Mills, 250 
Sergeant, Rev. John, his death, 56, 
340 

Service, Captain-, a Tory, 212 ; 

killed, 231-232 

Seymour, Horatio, his views of Or¬ 
iskany, 194 

Sharon Centre. See Torlock 
Shaw, Joseph, 355, 368 
Shawhiangto, destroyed by General 
Clinton, 276 
Shays's rebellion, 339 
Shemanwaga, destroyed by the Sul¬ 
livan expedition, 281 
Shirley, General William, enlarges 
Fort Oswego, 187 

Sidney, ancient fort at, 25; Indian 
giant who lived there, 25; the 
knoll at, 26; the settlement found¬ 
ed, 58 ; lands sold at, 111; Rev. 
William Johnston settles, 133-134; 
settlement broken up by Brant, 
* 73 - I 7 S! meeting of Herkimer 
and Brant at, 178-183 ; General 
Clinton at, 273; return of the 
Johnstons to, 335; Israel Smith 
settles in, 342 ; church at, 377 


INDEX 


Simms, J. R., his “ History of Scho¬ 
harie County," 18 
Six Nations, the. See Iroquois 
Skenando, an Oneida chief, friend of 
the Americans, 154 

Skillings, -, his skeleton found 

near Unadilla, 352 
Skoiyase, destroyed by the Sullivan 
expedition, 281 

Sleeper, Joseph, settles on the Otego 
patent, 128, 142 ; his home invaded 
by the Senecas, 250, 398 
Sliter, family of, settle in Unadilla, 
134 ; driven out by Brant, 173-175 
Smith, Rev. C. J., missionary, 70 
Smith, Captain John, 14, 17 
Smith Hall, 129, 359 
Smith, Israel, settles in Sidney, 342 
Smith, Richard, 128, 139, 358 
Smith and Wells, settle the Otego 
patent, 117; journal of their tour, 

138-143 

Snyder, Captain -, describes 

Brant, 166 

Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel, 48, 52 

Spencer, Amos, settles in Maryland, 
344 

Spencer, Rev. Elihu, missionary to 
Oghwaga, 53, 340 
Spencer, Jonathan, 336 
Spencer, Orange, 336 
Spencer, Thomas, half-breed orator, 
148 ; brings news of St. Leger’s 
coming, 189; killed at Oriskany, 
192 

Springfield, settled, 126 ; inhabitants 
retire to Cherry Valley, 209; de¬ 
stroyed by Brant, 211 ; General 
Clinton’s stores taken to, 259 ; set¬ 
tlers in, 344 

Stacy, Colonel-, hardships suf¬ 

fered by as a prisoner, 350 
Stark, General John, wins the battle 
of Bennington, 189 ; commands at 
Albany, 209; opposes offensive 
operations, 230; his instructions 
from General Gates, 255; his re¬ 
sponsibility for frontier disasters, 
256; weakens Colonel Willett, 308 
Stars and Stripes, the, a rude copy 
made at Fort Schuyler, 188 

Stewart, General-, associated 

with Brant, 320 

Stiles, Job, messenger from Sullivan 
to Clinton, 269 

Stockbridge, Indian school at, 52, 
56 . 57 

Stone Arabia, two persons killed in, 
264 ; battle of, 298 


Stone, Colonel W. L., his “ Life of 
Brant,” 5, 157 ; sketch of, 74 ; de¬ 
scribes battle of Oriskany, 190- 
192; Brant at Minisink, 268; 
quoted, passim 

Stuart, Rev. John, missionary, Brant 
assists in translations, 160; sketch 
of, 180 

Sturges, Judge Hezekiah, 343 

Sullivan, General John, his expe¬ 
dition, 220; Congress orders it, 
257 ; Clinton’s brigade at Otsego 
Lake, 255-262; the enemy sent 
against, 265; sends a detachment 
to meet Clinton, 276 ; short of sup¬ 
plies, 277 ; starts from Tioga Point, 
278 ; battle of Newtown, 279; 
towns he laid waste, 280-282; fu¬ 
tility of his work, 214 

Summit Lake, Sir John Johnson's 
expedition camps on, 297; battle 
at, 305 

Susquehanna, historic interest of, 3 ; 
fur traders on, 8, 34 ; fort on, pro¬ 
posed, 35; Captain John Smith 
at mouth of, 17 ; meaning of the 
name, 18 ; Iroquois name for, 19; 
Indian population of, 21 ; villages 
on, 21 ; trails on, 29-31 ; first white 
men on, 32 ; William Penn’s in¬ 
terest in, 24; Colden’s report on, 
38 ; Sir William Johnson’s interest 
in, 39 ; missionary field on, 72; 
expedition to, 74; Penn seeks to 
purchase, 88 ; conveyance of, to 
the English, 89-90; early patents 
on, 93-96; Wallace patent on, 
106; Scotch-Irish settle on, 116- 
118; road to from Catskill, 138 ; 
road down from Otsego Lake, 
139 ; Brant and the Mohawks ar¬ 
rive on, 166 ; Herkimer descends, 
178; settlements on destroyed, 
202; Indians about to “strike” 
on, 205; Brant collecting Tories 
on, 207; view of confluence of, with 
the Unadilla, facing 102; Clin¬ 
ton's descent of, 272-277 ; flood in, 
at opening of dam at Otsego Lake, 
271-272 ; a highway for invaders, 
287 ; desolation on, 311, 331; re¬ 
turn of settlers to, 332-336, 342- 
346, 348-353; Talleyrand's visit, 
368-371 ; tour of, by Dr. Burhans, 
374; churches founded on, 373- 
378; Bishop Philander Chase's 
visit, 375 ; Robert S. Witmore on, 
375 ; turnpikes to, 379-391 ; pro¬ 
posed canal on, 390; isolation of 
settlements on, 392 



INDEX 


Susquehanna Flats, 26. See also 
Sidney, Johnston Settlement and 
Unadilla, Old Town 
Susquehanna Indians, meet Captain 
John Smith, 17 ; remains of, 19 

Talleyrand, Brant meets, 323; 
visits the Susquehanna Valley, 
368-371 

Teedyuscung, a Delaware chief, 74 
Tee Yee Ho Ga Row, Emperor of 
the Iroquois in 1710, portrait of, 
facing 158 

Thurston, Increase, 127 
Tioga County, 355 
Tioga Point, meeting place of trails, 
30 ; Indians at. 57 ; Line of Prop¬ 
erty at, 101; Colonel John Butler 
starts from, for Wyoming, 215, 
218 ; council at, in preparation for 
Cherry Valley massacre, 240, 264 ; 
prisoners at, 251 ; Clinton starts 
lor, 271; men sent from, to meet 
General Clinton, 276 ; the Sullivan 
Expedition departs from, 278; 
prisoners at, 289 ; Indian forces 
collected at, 296; Louis Philippe 
at, 370 

Torlock, prisoners taken at, 264; 
battle of, 304 ; cattle captured at, 
3°5 

Towanoedalough, a Mohawk town, 
23, 59 

Towyjaronsere, John, Brant laments 
his death, 278 

Tribes Hill, plundered by Sir John 
Johnson, 291 

Trowbridge, Captain-, 355 

Tryon County, events in, 5 ; Camp¬ 
bell's “Annals ” of, 21; corner of, 
24; territory of, 119 ; patriots in, 
148; militia of, under Herkimer, 
177, 189 ; pays the penalty of Ind¬ 
ian losses at Oriskany, 195 ; dan¬ 
ger in, 221, 228; its most opulent 
parts destroyed, 294 ; Tories weak¬ 
ening in, 295 ; decline in militia of, 
303 ; losses in, 312, 313 
Tunnicliffe, John, settles in Rich¬ 
field, 123 ; the enemy at his house, 
2ix, 224; returns to Richfield, 
244 

Tuscaroras, lands of, in New York, 
17, 3 I 91 lands New York bought 
of, 342 

Ulster, invaded by Brant, 289; 

enemy lurking in, 308 
Unadilla, old town, Indian lands in, 
16; Indian monument near, 24; 


territory originally embraced in, 
26; meaning of the word, 26 ; Gid¬ 
eon Hawley at, 60; settled by 
Scotch-Irish, 130, 131; village of 
Mohicans near, 143; settlers at, 
retire to Cherry Valley, 166; Brant 
disperses the settlement in, 173- 
175; Tories at, with Brant, 176; 
Herkimer meets Brant at, 178-184; 
in the hands of Tories, 182 ; force 
Brant had at, 192 ; no patriots left 
in, 202; preparations at, to attack 
Cherry Valley, 204 ; Brant's return 
to, 206 ; a resort of Tories and ne¬ 
groes, 209 ; Colonel Butler expect¬ 
ed at, 211; size of the force at, 
214; attack on expected, 215; re¬ 
turn of the enemy to, after Wy¬ 
oming, 220; scout goes to, 224; 
prisoners taken at, 225 ; Governor 
Clinton advises sending militia to, 
229-230; size of enemy at, 231, 
234; Timothy Murphy at, 233; 
Colonel William Butler destroys, 
234-236; General Clinton at, 273- 
275; prisoners taken to, 292; 
an invading force marches to, 
296 

Unadilla, township of, 374, 381; rec¬ 
ords of, 397 

Unadilla, village of, St. Matthew's 
Church farm, 114; the Binne- 
kill at, 335 ; settled from Connect¬ 
icut, 342 ; ironware found buried 
at, 352 ; founders of, 353 ; St. Mat¬ 
thew’s Church founded, 376 ; Dr. 
Timothy Dwight visits, 385, 386, 
387; an inland river port, 387; 
reminiscences of, 413 
Unadilla Forks, settled, 123 
Unadilla River, part of Fort Stan- 
wix line, 3, 101, 103 ; Oneida terri¬ 
tory, 116; confluence of, with Sus¬ 
quehanna, 15 ; mouth of, resort of 
hunters, 25 ; view of, facing 102 ; 
settlement of, 122 ; men killed on, 
225 ; Brant retreats down, 226- 
227; General Jacob Morris at 
mouth of, 365 ; Robert S. Wetmore 
on, 375 ; Dr.Timothy Dwight vis¬ 
its, 387 ; land values in, 395 
Union, meeting at, between Clinton 
and Sullivan’s men, 276 
Upton, Clotworthy, his patent, 104 
Utsyantha Lake, battle at, 306 

Van Derwerker, Captain John, 
settles in Oneonta, 129 ; returns to 
Oneonta, 334 

Van Hovenburg, Lieutenant, 273 


43 ° 


INDEX 


Van Rensselaer, General Robert, at 
the battle of Klock's Field, 298; 
findings of Court of Inquiry about, 
297 

Van Schaick, Colonel-, goes to 

Cherry Valley, 177; expedition 
against the Onondagas, 263 
Van Valkenberg, Joachim, settles at 
mouth of Schenevus Creek, 121, 
141-142; General Clinton at his 
farm, 273-274 ; killed, 306 
Van Vechten, Abraham, 114 
Vissher, Colonel, his home invaded, 
291 

Vermont sufferers settle in the Sus¬ 
quehanna Valley, 341 

Visscher,-, map by, 32 

Vrooman, -, Brant's ineffective 

help of, to escape, 251 

Waddell, R. R., 108 
Wagner, Joseph, 183 
Wallace, Alexander, the patent 
called his, 106-115; a Tory, 109; 
attainted, no 

Wallace, Hugh, a New York mer¬ 
chant, 106 ; a Tory, 109 ; attainted, 

no 

Walling, Simeon, 335 
Warner, George, made a prisoner, 
305 

Warren, Captain Benjamin, de¬ 
scribes Colonel Alden’s arrival at 
Cherry Valley, 223 ; his diary, 239. 
242 

Warren’s Bush, invaded by Major 
Ross, 305 

Warren, Sir Peter, aids Stockbridge 
School, 56 

Washington, George, letter to the 
Iroquois, 155; his early battles, 
176; his campaigns defensive 
ones, 196 ; in the Highlands, 203 ; 
directs Sullivan's Expedition, 257 ; 
as to General Clinton’s supplies, 
277 ; his instruction to Sullivan to 
be severe, 282 ; intervention of, in 
behalf of the Iroquois, 319 ; visits 
Cherry Valley and Otsego Lake, 
333 

Wasson, Catherine, 238 
Wattles’s Ferry, 135; Nathaniel 
Wattles establishes, 347, 353; 

terminus of Catskill Turnpike, 
379; Dr. Timothy Dwight at, 
3 8 4 

Wattles, Nathaniel, 341, 380, 397 
Wattles, Sluman, as a boy in Leba¬ 
non, 341, 347; settles in Frank¬ 
lin, 348; work on the Catskill 


Turnpike, 380; his account book, 
397i 398 

Wauteghe, Indian town, 60. See 
Otego 

Wavonwanorem, Adam, 77 
Wawarsing, burned, 305 
Weiser, Conrad, the elder, Jeader of 
the Palatines, 36 

Weiser, Conrad, the younger, 37; 
conversation with an Onandaga 
chief, 39 ; at Onondaga, 56 
Weller, David, 343 
Wells, Jane, killed at Cherry 
Valley, 241; story of her cap, 
252 

Wells, Captain John, builds fort at 
Oghwaga, 65 ; killed with his fam¬ 
ily at Cherry Valley, 241 
Wells, John, escapes massacre at 
Cherry Valley ; anecdote of, 323 
Wetmore, Robert G., 375 
Wempel, Abraham, 208 
West Canada Creek, Willett's pur¬ 
suit of Major Ross on, 306 
Wheelock, Rev. Dr. Eleazer, his 
school at Lebanon, 69, 340 
Wheelock, James, 323 
Wheelock, Ralph, anecdote of, 79 
White, Hugh, pioneer in the Mo¬ 
hawk Valley, 339 
White, James, 355 
White, Dr. Joseph, of Cherry Valley, 
342 

Whiting, Major Daniel, takes pris¬ 
oners on the Butternut Creek, 
227; at Cherry Valley, 241, 242; 
ordered to Otsego Lake, 259 
Whitney's Point, 355 
Willett, Colonel Marinus, second in 
command at Fort Schuyler, 188 ; 
leads sortie at Fort Schuyler, 193 ; 
wanted again, but not available, 
230; portrait of, facing 301 ; ar¬ 
rives in the Mohawk Valley, 301 ; 
at the battle of Torlock, 304; 
drives the enemy into the wilder¬ 
ness, 305-307 ; attempts to capture 
Fort Oswego, 309 
Wilmot, William, 342 
Wilson, Peter, a Cayuga chief, 
speech Of, 331 
Windsor. See Oghwaga 
Winedecker, George, a trader, 59 
Wisner, John, enlists men on the 
Susquehanna, 167 

Woodbridge, Timothy, missionary 
at Stockbridge, 52, 56; goes to 
Oghwaga, 57 ; returns to Albany, 
61 

Woodruff, Henry S., 389 


431 



INDEX 


Woolley, Joseph, missionary, 77 
Worcester, Mass., destruction of 
Presbyterian Church at, 132 ; men 
from settle on the Unadilla, 134 
Wormwood, Lieutenant Matthew, 
killed at Cherry Valley, 208 
Wyalusing, 35, 65, 88 
Wyoming, Dr. Wheelock’s interest 
in, 71; families enter by the Sus¬ 
quehanna route, 142; motives for 


the massacre of, 197 ; attack on, 
planned early, 205 ; Colonel But¬ 
ler to attack, 215; settled from 
Connecticut, 217; the massacre of, 
210 - 220 ; relation of the massacre 
at, to the Cherry Valley massacre 
238 


Yager, W. E., 23 

Young, David and John, 213, 334 




43 2 


































